Sword and Claw
by Fish on Land
Summary: In the past, monsters were vicious predators driven by the Chief God's will to attack humans. It was only through the struggles of a human hero and a succubus that they became the civilised beings of today. This is the story of those struggles.
1. Chapter 1: Grim Beginnings

_Author's Note: Okay, so I know I mentioned in my last chapter for Dark Genesis that my next fic would be Holy Genesis, which would show Ilias' backstory. However, I couldn't work up the interest to write that story, so I instead decided to try out one of my other ideas. Thus, I've now stepped into the territory of Monster Girl Encyclopedia._

_Like my previous fics, this one is historical. Specifically, it depicts (my interpretation of) the events that lead to the MGE world actually having monster girls in the first place._

_UPDATE 5/11/19: __I decided to remove the first section of the chapter, since it was overly pretentious and didn't really fit the tone of the rest of the story._

* * *

It was a cloudy day. The sky was filled with grey and white from one horizon to the other. Not the best weather for hunting, Adam thought, but it would be irresponsible to delay.

He prepared his armour. First, he put on his breastplate, a masterpiece of steel that had saved his life far too many times to count. To complement that, he pulled an armguard on his right arm and greaves on his legs. His head was protected by a simple steel helm, which provided adequate protection while not hindering his eyes and ears—keen senses were vital in his line of work. Last of all was his shield. A simple heater design, wood with a steel frame, yet it was marked by the scars of many battles. The shield bore his coat of arms, a golden angel on a blue field.

Now for his weapons. An arming sword, forged by the finest blacksmith in Merith. It was his primary tool of the trade, and he meticulously kept it sharpened and cleaned. A dagger, no longer than his forearm, but still a deadly weapon in a pinch. Both were sheathed at his hips.

He then added his more utilitarian, but no less essential items. A map, which depicted the entire continent with a fair amount of detail. A waterskin, which he filled at the local well. His coin-purse, which he made sure to secure tightly. After some rummaging around, he found his flint and steel—couldn't forget those. And of course, he took his plate, the symbol of his faith. It was a simple wooden disc inscribed with a five-pointed star, the symbol of the Chief God.

Before he set off, he decided to perform a quick prayer. Holding the plate close to his heart, he closed his eyes and murmured a request for success in their venture. From what he'd heard of the enemy ahead, they'd need it.

Suddenly, a rude voice shattered the silence.

"Oi, we're dying of old age over here!"

Adam blinked several times. Then he laughed, and left the room.

Four men were waiting for him outside. As he approached, one of them, short and fair-haired, said, "Hey, what happened in there? Did you slip and knock yourself out for a bit?"

Adam blinked and started rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know, Marcus," he said. "Why… what if that happened? It could be serious—I have to see a healer right away!"

All of them laughed, with one exception, a tall man who merely continued to tend to his equipment.

Marcus sat down. While tapping his fingers against his bow, he said, "Well, just make sure you don't faint on us today."

Still chuckling, Adam turned to the next man, who was bulky and carried an axe. He asked him, "Morning, John. How—how is your family?"

John averted his eyes momentarily, then said darkly, "There's a lot of things I could say about them, but all of them would get me sent to hell."

"Ah. The same as usual, then?" Adam said, trying to be delicate.

John nodded morosely.

"Well, on the bright side, you won't have to see them for a while," Adam said.

This elicited a faint smile from John, but that only depressed Adam. When he was training to become a hero, one of his goals was to be able to help people with issues like this. But in the three years he'd known John, the latter was no closer to being accepted by his family—if anything, it seemed to have gotten worse. Still, he couldn't give up.

Then Cutter spoke up. He had blond hair, an unusual colour in this region—he seemed to have come from somewhere in the north. His features were stern yet handsome, especially his clear grey eyes, and had drawn the attention of more than a few women.

"Hey, boss. What are we doing today? Is it playing with bandits, or—"

"It's a hunting expedition, Cutter," Adam replied. "There's been sightings of werewolves up near Valeria, and we need to sort the situation out."

Cutter smiled and tightened his grip on his spear. "In that case, I hope that we find plenty of them," he said.

Adam couldn't find the words to respond to that. He knew some of Cutter's past—not all, but enough to know that he could never fully understand the man. After all, none of Adam's family had been devoured by monsters, nor was that likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

Finally, Adam addressed the last of his subordinates, the same man who hadn't laughed before.

"Hogan, how are our horses—and donkeys?"

"All in good condition," Hogan said, not taking his eyes off his work. "We can leave at any time."

Hogan was never the most conversational of men, but his reliability was without question. He was always the first to begin his work and the last to stop. Whenever one of the other men had drank himself into a stupor—something that certain individuals were more prone to than others—it was Hogan who'd drag him out of the pub and back home.

At any rate, it seemed that all of their preparations were finished. Despite the dismal weather, it was still perfectly possible to see. That said, darkness would arrive much sooner than usual for this season. There was a common saying that, out in the wilderness, darkness equalled death. The popular reasoning was that night was when the dark power of monsters was at its height, though Adam privately suspected that it was simply because monsters had superior hearing and smell than humans, so were less disadvantaged by darkness. Regardless of the reason, they needed to reach the next village before the light disappeared, so they set out the moment they finished their preparations.

Adam, John and Cutter rode on horses, while Marcus and Hogan rode on donkeys. These arrangements caused much grumbling on Marcus' part, until John then offered to trade steeds, provided that the former first find a donkey capable of carrying John's weight.

They passed through fields of wheat and barley, through rows of verdant orchards, through the pastures where cattle and sheep grazed. It was a peaceful environment, but one that was only possible thanks to the efforts of men like them.

In a matter of hours, they came it to the village of Idris, which lay on the path to Valeria. When it first came into sight, the group began to relax. Marcus was in the middle of explaining how, five months ago, he'd ended up outside a bar wearing a golden crown and a woman's dress, when they saw the first ruined building. The moment they saw it, the five of them spurred their steeds into a gallop. As they got close to the devastation, the horses and donkeys stopped and struggled against their riders. With Hogan's coaxing, the animals relented but didn't stop trembling.

They entered the village, passing empty house after empty house. Every building had at least one door or window destroyed, and many were outright missing walls. No one called to them. There were no craftsmen toiling in their workshops, no women tending to their homes, no children playing in the streets. There were only remains. Bones, picked clean of all of their flesh, a few even cracked open for the marrow. The signs of a struggle could be discerned here and there—stirred up soil, broken axes and spears, scraps of cloth.

As the group moved deeper into the village, they saw a few houses that had been practically levelled, with just a few sorry remnants of wall remaining. Rubble was strewn everywhere. There were even more bones, many of them visibly fresher than those in the outskirts.

Finally, they came to the village square. On one side, wooden pillars had been erected, the kind that criminals were tied to so that they could be publically humiliated. These were battered and covered in dark red stains, while the ground around them was strewn with bones and bits of rope.

Here, the men slowed to a stop. All of them were unnerved, and John in particular seemed on the verge of vomiting. They'd seen the aftermaths of several monster attacks… but never anything on so large a scale.

Countless tracks littered the soil—most of them human, but several that clearly weren't. Bending down, Cutter examined the tracks. Each one was a continuous trail as wide as a man's shoulders, as if a heavy sack had been dragged across the earth. He grimaced.

"Lamias," he said, the spear in his hand shaking.

That put them all on edge. Lamias were among the more powerful monsters, having both great strength and magical ability. Their bodies were like enormous serpents from the waist down, but their upper bodies were similar in shape to a human's. The resemblance was purely superficial, however; their entire bodies were covered in armoured scales, their hands were tipped with claws, and their heads were grotesque, as if they'd been designed by a mad artist combining elements of reptiles and other beasts.

They scanned the surroundings warily. It wasn't uncommon for monsters to attack human settlements that had already been invaded by other monsters. Adam cast a spell, one that sent out a small wave of spirit energy which would react with the demonic energy of any monsters in the vicinity. There was no response to this spell, which could mean that the coast was clear… or that there was a monster skilled enough in magic to cloak their own energy. Either way, they couldn't let their guard down.

Next, they debated what to do. There wasn't nearly enough time in the day for them to reach Valeria, and there wasn't any other source of shelter nearby. They'd have to stay in Idris for the night, a stomach-churning proposition for all of them.

First, Hogan and Marcus took the horses and donkeys outside the village to feed and water them. The rest searched for the most defensible structure that was still standing. They settled on the village inn, which was largely intact and had a stable. After cleaning up the mess inside, they began to fortify the building. The inn's windows, like several of the other buildings', had been boarded up, so all they had to do was repair any damage. The door had been torn off its hinges, but they deliberately made no attempt to repair it: if there were no available entrances, any monster would suspect that there was someone still barricaded inside. As a final measure, Adam cast spells over the inn, to suppress both their physical scent and their spirit energy signatures.

Night fell all too quickly. The men ate their dinner, dried rations from their packs. The horses and donkeys were lulled into sleep with the help of Adam's magic, to prevent them from alerting anyone or anything. Soon after, the men went to bed as well, with two of them remaining on guard at all times.

In less than an hour, the anticipated threat had arrived.

Adam and Cutter were the ones on watch. They heard the sound of flapping wings, faint initially. As it grew louder, it sounded vaguely like a colony of bats was approaching the village. But soon, they heard the shrieks—unearthly sounds that seemed to pierce into the depths of their minds. Harpies.

The two of them didn't need to wake up the rest, since the harpies' shrieks had done that for them. They quickly checked on the animals to make sure they were still asleep, then carefully moved to the windows and peered outside.

Fortunately, the clouds had mostly dispersed. Innumerable shapes were visible against the backdrop of the starry sky, moving at high speed. A terrible cacophony of noise filled the air.

The harpies began to descend. At first, they looked indistinguishable from giant birds in the darkness. As they approached, the humans saw their true appearances: vaguely human faces with mouths full of sharp teeth, wings that spanned twice a man's height, brown feathers matted with filth, and scaled legs ending in vicious talons.

Cutter started to move towards the door, spear in hand. His friends tried to hold him back, and it took three of them to stop him. Trying to fight harpies in the open would be suicidal, even if they weren't horribly outnumbered.

The harpies began to land, and the screech of talons on roof tiles joined the unearthly shrieks. They had to be searching the village, scavenging for anything left to eat.

After a minute or two, one of them spoke, in a harsh yet still coherent voice, "Damn it, there's nothing here! The snakes must have gotten them all!"

"Keep looking! There's bound to be something!" said another harpy, this one visibly larger than the rest.

Cutter struggled, but the others held him firmly. In the worst case, if the harpies found them, it would still be safer to stay inside. The windows and doors would act as bottlenecks, and the confined space would remove the harpies' advantage in speed. It was the only chance they had at survival—and even then, it was virtually guaranteed that only some of them would make it.

They waited out the attack, keeping their weapons at the ready for the entire time. Several times, the harpies came close to the inn. There seemed to be nothing else but bloodcurdling screeches, which slowly but surely wore down the men's resolve.

After what seemed like an eternity, the harpies gave up on their search. With screeches of disappointment, they took flight and disappeared into the black sky.

Marcus swore. "That was a close one. We wouldn't have stood a chance if they'd found us."

"Harpies aren't good with magic," Hogan said. "If it had been another kind of monster, they might have found us from the spells we used to hide."

"Regardless, we can't afford to let down our guard yet," Adam said. "It's still possible that more monsters will arrive."

This statement drew nods from all of the men. It may have been pessimistic, but in this world, optimism had a very short lifespan.


	2. Chapter 2: Hard Turn

The next morning, there was a small argument over what to do next. Cutter and John argued strongly in favour of the aggressive approach, going after the lamias that they knew had attacked humans, as opposed to the werewolves that had merely been sighted. Adam and Marcus were more cautious, pointing out that the number of tracks suggested that there were at least a dozen lamias, a force too powerful for them to defeat. Neither mentioned the harpies: the high mobility of these avian monsters meant it would be nearly impossible to locate their nest. The argument came down to Hogan. He pointed out that they couldn't fight the lamias with their current force, but also that they were the best fighters of their town.

They therefore continued towards Valeria, going at the quickest pace that their steeds could sustain. The plan was to first find and kill the werewolves, then to recruit soldiers from the town guard and deal with the lamias.

Eventually, they came to a forest. The countless trees provided enough cover for an army—no, several armies to hide. The road forked near the edge of the forest, with one road leading around the forest and the other cutting straight through it.

They argued again, this time over how they should proceed. The forest separating Merith and Valeria was immense, so taking the long route around it would prevent them from reaching Valeria before nightfall. On the other hand, cutting straight through the forest was faster, yet it also meant taking a terrible risk. It was the kind of situation where there simply weren't any good options. Eventually, they decided to brave the danger.

Adam enchanted the group to suppress as much of their presence as possible. Even with that preparation, the atmosphere was tense.

They proceeded slowly, cautiously. All still seemed normal, yet all five of them were tense. Every chirp of a passing bird, every rustle of leaves in the wind, elicited a jump or a nervous look from at least one of the men. The trees were perfectly normal, but to their eyes, they seemed to be giants, reaching out with clawed hands. None of the men dared to raise their voices above a whisper, and even then, only when strictly necessary.

Eventually, there was a noise. It was distant, muffled by the intervening vegetation, yet it sounded like a wolf's howl. Adam immediately started casting an enhancement spell, which would bolster their physical strength. Marcus pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. The five of them scanned the surroundings, perusing every angle. Suddenly, Cutter shouted "There!" and pointed his spear at a group of dark shapes rushing towards them.

They shifted positions, with John, Cutter and Hogan in front, towards the incoming threat, while Marcus and Adam were behind them. Adam finished his magic, sending out a burst of spirit energy that fortified their limbs.

The shapes became clear—they were werewolves. Masses of black fur and teeth and claws, currently running towards them at speeds rivalling horses. Adam quickly reviewed his lesson on them: werewolves could move on two legs or four; the latter was used for speed, the former allowed them to make use of their formidable claws, which could fell a small tree in a single swipe. Werewolves could also smell prey from beyond the horizon; this both explained how these ones had found Adam's group, and also guaranteed that they could not escape, only fight.

Marcus fired, and his arrow struck one werewolf in the shoulder. It fell to the ground, but that left four more. When the werewolves were nearly within spear-distance, John's horse suddenly reared up in fright, throwing its rider off balance. John tried desperately to right himself, but a clawed arm struck him in the chest, easily piercing through his armour.

"John! Shit!"

Cursing, Cutter charged at the werewolf that had just attacked John, running it through with his spear. With the added momentum of his horse, he managed to force the werewolf to the ground.

At the same time, Adam spurred his horse into a gallop, charging at a third werewolf. Holding his shield at an angle, he deflected its attack, then swung his sword, landing a solid blow on the werewolf's stomach. It flailed around in pain, trying to hit Adam. An arrow struck it in its open mouth, piercing its brain, and the werewolf collapsed.

Meanwhile, the werewolf attacked by Cutter had fallen, but another almost immediately took its place. The werewolf swiped fiercely at Hogan's horse, practically decapitating it, but Hogan himself jumped away in time. Hogan and Cutter worked together to engage the newcomer. The two warriors inflicted several wounds, none of them major, but the werewolf couldn't land a blow on either of them.

Adam looked around, searching for the remaining werewolves. He spotted the one that Marcus had shot at a distance—it had dragged itself behind a tree, presumably wary of further arrows. But where was the last one?

There was a bloodcurdling scream from behind. Whirling around, Adam saw Marcus impaled on a massive clawed hand. With a triumphant howl, the werewolf lifted Marcus into the air and threw him at a nearby tree. He slammed into it with a sickening crunch.

Before Adam could react, before Marcus' body even fell to the ground, Cutter lost control, getting off his horse and charging the werewolf on foot. He attacked the werewolf wildly, holding absolutely nothing in reserve.

Adam moved in to back up Cutter, but suddenly spotted a dark blur out of the corner of his eye. Straining his body, Adam twisted around and slashed blindly at the incoming werewolf. His sword sliced through the werewolf's arm, diverting a blow that would have otherwise taken off his head. However, the werewolf nevertheless scored a hit on the flank of Adam's horse, sending it into a panicked frenzy. Adam leapt off, and a second swipe passed through his previous position and snapped the horse's neck.

Forced onto his own two feet, Adam was wary. Without his horse, he was now at a significant disadvantage in height and weight. But the werewolf didn't immediately rush in to attack, either. It was the one that Marcus had shot at the start of the battle, and with both the arrow in its shoulder and the large gash in its arm, it also couldn't fight at full capacity.

There was a brief pause, then Adam and the werewolf clashed once more. The werewolf swung its uninjured arm with blinding speed, no doubt gambling on winning with this one attack. If it hit, Adam would be pulverised even through his armour.

In response, Adam moved his shield upwards and managed to deflect the werewolf's arm. Due to putting all its strength into the attack, the werewolf was thrown off balance. It was only for an instant, but an instant was all Adam needed. The hero swung his sword and cut through the werewolf's neck.

Just as Adam turned around, he was greeted by another horrific sight. Cutter, transfixed by a clawed hand through his stomach, while the werewolf bared its teeth in some grotesque imitation of a grin.

"Sod… that!"

But Cutter didn't let it end that easily. With strength born of pure rage, he pulled out a hidden knife from his sleeve and swung wildly at the werewolf's arm, slicing through the muscle.

"Not that easy, you piece of—"

Growling, the werewolf reached forward with its other arm and crushed Cutter's head to crimson pulp.

"Cutter! No!"

Adam charged at the werewolf, giving in to his rage. He attacked again and again, no longer caring about defence. The werewolf was caught off guard, and received injury after injury.

Eventually, Adam swung his sword in a wide arc, cutting open the werewolf's stomach. But it counterattacked, with a mad swipe that struck Adam's helmet, the impact resounding through his skull.

Dropping his sword, Adam staggered. Fortunately, his opponent collapsed from its own injuries.

Unfortunately, there was one werewolf left.

A great weight slammed into Adam, knocking him off his feet. It was Hogan, his throat savagely ripped out. Adam struggled to get up, but he was pinned by Hogan's body. He could only watch, helpless, as the final werewolf advanced.

Then something entirely unexpected happened. There was a white flash and the point of a spear suddenly burst from the werewolf's chest. The lupine monster looked down, with an almost-human expression of shock, before keeling over.

His limbs shook with fatigue and fear, but Adam refused to give up. He heaved Hogan's body off of himself, then quickly inspected the man's wound. But it was clear that Hogan was beyond help. He then rushed towards the other three, hoping that one of them might still be clinging to life. But it was no use.

Adam saw movement at the edge of his vision. It had to be his rescuer. A local woodsman, perhaps? He sat up, intending to thank them.

The figure resembled a human woman, but with very clearly inhuman features. Curved horns protruded from her head, similar to a ram's. A pair of snow-white wings, with the general structure of a bat's, fanned out behind her. A long tail of the same colour flicked around near her legs. Her hair was an unnatural shade of brilliant white. Her eyes were red and seemed to glow with a faint light.

Adam looked at the monster—the succubus—for a few seconds, then immediately threw himself in the general direction of his sword. As long as he didn't meet its eyes, he could avoid its influence—

"Wait, I'm not going to hurt you!"

_I must not listen to it—it will say anything to tempt me_—

Adam reached his sword and rushed towards the monster, ignoring the pain in his ribs. He had to kill it quickly, before it could gain any influence over him.

"Just listen—"

But before he could reach it, the succubus took flight, retreating to a high branch. She looked down at Adam, seemingly frustrated.

"Honestly, did your training involve replacing your brain with muscle? I'm here to help you!" The succubus shouted.

"Only a fool would believe that!" Adam answered, brandishing his sword. He looked around, trying to find some way to attack the succubus. Climbing the tree would be pointless… but Marcus' bow and arrows lay on the ground, intact. Archery was never something he was good at, but there was no other choice. He'd yet to learn any ranged attack spells in his hero training.

The succubus spoke again, "Alright, just listen to me! There are arachnes coming, at least a dozen of them. You need to trust me!"

Adam didn't even bother to reply. He drew back the bow to its fullest extent, but the succubus took off, flying into the distance. Adam turned around slowly, scanning his surroundings for any trace of white.

Those who were known as heroes received training to handle all kinds of threats, including flying monsters. But human beings were, fundamentally, made for a terrestrial existence, and it was difficult to go against old instincts.

Consequently, Adam didn't look directly up and so didn't notice the falling tree branch. It broke across his helm with a loud crack. While the blow failed to knock him out, it did leave him dazed. As a result, he was unable to resist the unnatural drowsiness that spread through his body.

-ooo-

From her high vantage point, Lilith peered down at the prone figure. It certainly _looked_ as if her sleep magic had worked on him… but she couldn't take any chances. The heroes of the Order were tougher than ordinary humans, and she couldn't discount the possibility that he was merely acting.

Lilith decided to gather her demonic energy as if preparing to cast a spell. If he was conscious, the hero would definitely sense it and try to defend himself. But there was no reaction.

The succubus descended from the tree, landing a short distance from the hero. She carefully prodded him with a long stick, with the wariness of someone approaching a sleeping dragon. When there still wasn't a response, she lifted him, struggling a little with the weight, and carried him up into the canopy.

Then she considered what to do with the rest. Two of the horses had run off, and would almost certainly fall prey to some other danger, while the other three animals had been killed by the werewolves. Because of that, the arachnes wouldn't know for certain how many humans there had been. As for the bodies… it might be suspicious if there were too few human bodies compared to werewolf bodies. But at least one might be possible –

Then she heard the sound of countless spider legs, skittering against the forest floor.

Lilith quickly cast an illusion over herself and the hero, covering both of them in a film of mottled greens and browns. Illusions weren't her specialty, but the thick foliage of the canopy would aid in concealing them.

There wasn't time to do anything else. Three inhuman silhouettes emerged from the darkness, stirring up fear even in the succubus' heart. They each had the lower body of a colossal, twisted spider, capable of devouring an entire human with their great fanged mouths. Like many other monsters, they were tauric in form, with humanoid upper bodies—but these could only be considered humanoid in the vaguest of senses, being covered in hard exoskeleton, having pincers instead of hands, and possessing multiple pairs of unblinking eyes.

The arachnes advanced, a wave of legs, venomous fangs and piercing cries. As they approached, Lilith could hear them speaking in a strange dialect. She had to use a translation spell, one which allowed her to understand the fundamental meaning of the words.

"—so much meat! And so many different kinds!"

"We're having a feast tonight!"

"Not just tonight—with the wolves gone, this forest is ours! We'll be having feasts every day from now!"

Cackling with glee, the arachnes began to feed. Lilith closed her eyes and tried, futilely, to ignore the sounds of flesh and bone being torn apart. Eventually, the arachnes stopped feeding and began dragging the remaining bodies away, presumably to their lair.

Once she was sure the arachnes were gone, Lilith slumped against the trunk of the tree. She let out an anxious breath.

-ooo-

Dull pain filled Adam's head. Groaning, he opened his eyes.

He was bathed in a soft sunlight, which gave his aching limbs some much-needed warmth. In front of him was a leather bag—dirty and torn by werewolf claws, yet it was unmistakeably one of the saddlebags from his horse.

Adam turned his head, allowing him to notice the figure standing behind him. She was quite tall, with long white hair that reached her waist. She wore a long brown dress that was faded from exposure to the elements—the attire of a traveller.

Strangely, she also had horns, bat-like wings and a tail.

_That can't be right_, Adam thought. Either this was all a dream, or he was still in a delirious state.

Shaking his head, he continued taking in his situation. He was lying on the grass, with no bedroll—slightly uncomfortable, but it was the height of luxury, given the situation. If anything, it was an amazing stroke of luck just to still have the one saddlebag.

As Adam continued down that line of thought, he remembered. John, Marcus, Hogan and Cutter, all eviscerated by werewolves. He could feel their blood, still coating his hands.

For a few moments, he reasoned that it all had to be some hellish nightmare. It was too calm, too peaceful for something like that to have happened. But he was an experienced hero, and he knew that monsters had nothing but complete disregard for such things. And he couldn't deny, no matter how hard he tried, the absence of his friends.

Adam closed his eyes. He held a handful of grass in his clenched fist, tearing the green blades. His breath quickened, and he struggled to bring it under control.

A voice broke the silence, the kind that brooked no argument.

"You're awake, now? We need to talk."

Adam looked at the succubus again, with a clearer head. After taking in her inhuman features, his mind shifted into its combat state. He scanned his surroundings for anything he could use as a weapon. His sword, dagger and shield were propped against a small boulder, too far for him to get to in time. However, there were no shortage of rocks and large sticks around, and he still had the traditional weapon of mankind—his own body. Against most monsters, this wouldn't be nearly enough, but succubi weren't built for direct combat.

"I know that we started out on the wrong foot, but—"

Adam leapt to his feet and charged at the succubus. Before he could get anywhere near her, she flew to refuge on a tree branch.

"Alright, just stop this!" the succubus said, "Okay? Stop it. We'll never get anywhere at this rate."

"You think I'd be foolish enough to listen to you?" Adam retorted, hefting a branch as a makeshift club.

"Fine, I'm going to pretend that you're listening," the succubus said, grabbing her hair in frustration. "My name is Lilith, and I'm a monster who doesn't attack humans."

Meanwhile, Adam was considering his options. Throwing something would be pointless. It took a combination of skill and a specially-made weapon to throw with any degree of power or accuracy. However, a few years ago, he'd been taught about one of humanity's earliest weapons, the sling. It could be made from a wide variety of objects, its ammunition was omnipresent, and it was far deadlier than most people expected.

Before he could tear off his sleeve, Lilith—no, the succubus, did something surprising. She jumped down, landing right in front of Adam.

"Look," she said, spreading her arms wide, "I'm unarmed. I'm not going to hurt you. Happy?"

Adam held back, confused. While monsters were generally unpredictable, they still valued their own lives, like all other living things. For one to put itself in such a risky position—was it simply overconfident in its own charm? Or was it powerful enough to not consider him a threat?

Adam cautiously backed away from the succubus, but lowered his weapon slightly.

Sighing with relief, the succubus continued, "Alright, so you're ready to listen now?"

Adam considered his words carefully. Every instinct in him, every lesson instilled by his teachers, emphasised the treacherous nature of monsters. Logically, the succubus had only saved him in order to gain access to a powerful puppet, through which she could inflict significant damage on the Order's defences. Why else would she have stepped in just when he was the only one still alive? And yet… there was something odd about all this, something that Adam couldn't quite put his finger on.

"I'm listening," Adam said.

"Good," the succubus said. "Now, we need to make sure that we're on the same page. I know that a monster who doesn't attack humans must sound impossible to you, but it's the truth. It's—put it this way, there are hundreds of different kinds of monsters, most of which number in the thousands, even tens of thousands. Do you really think that all of them could uniformly desire the death of humans?"

Adam was still suspicious, but he decided to play along for now to. "That's what we're taught," he said.

"Okay… I won't deny that most monsters want to kill—and eat—humans," the succubus said. "But that's something that we're taught, not something that we're born with. The parents pass this way of life on to their children, who pass it on to their children, and so on. For monsters who don't care for their children, they have to grow up fending for themselves, so they don't learn kindness towards anyone else, whether humans or other monsters."

Adam considered these words carefully. In many ways, they made sense. Humans were born ignorant, being dependent on their parents to gain a sense of morality. And wild animals faced the risk of death every day; a monster with a comparable lifestyle might well consider humans to be prey like any other animal.

…Of course, this was all assuming that the succubus was telling the truth. Adam's teachers had emphasised to him that succubi were among the more dangerous of monsters: while they were not particularly strong or durable, they possessed an unrivalled talent in deceiving and manipulating humans.

_And besides, why would normal logic even apply to monsters?_ Adam thought. _They're already different from humans and animals in their appearance and unnatural strength… _

"If that's the case, why are you an exception?" Adam asked.

The succubus lowered her head. It was several seconds before she could reply.

"To explain that, I'll need to tell you about my past. I come from a small village of succubi on the edge of Royal Makai. When I was growing up, the only other people I knew were other monsters: mainly other succubi, but there was the occasional demon who visited our village. The point is, I didn't encounter a human until I was six."

Adam narrowed his eyes. According to his lessons, succubi were born as creatures of unnatural lust and depravity. It was said that they could not reach adulthood without consuming a man's life. However, he decided to keep listening.

"The first human I saw was a man who couldn't have been older than twenty, brought to the village by two of the adult succubi," the succubus continued. "I was intrigued by him, since he looked somewhat like us, but didn't have the horns, wings or tail. I wanted to talk to him… and then I saw _why_ the adult succubi had brought him here. It wasn't long before they reduced him to a shrivelled-up corpse. Then they dragged his corpse out of the village and returned to their lives, as if they hadn't just murdered someone. I snuck out of the village, a few hours later, and found the corpse—what was left of it—being eaten by ghouls."

The succubus paused, taking a deep breath.

"Thanks to that incident, I couldn't stand to be around the other succubi anymore. When I became an adult, I told them that I was heading out to explore the world. I did just that… and I never came back. That was three years ago. I disguised myself as a human and wandered through three different human countries. Eventually, I passed through this forest and I heard the sounds of a battle. That's how I came across you."

For a few moments, the only sounds were those of the forest. Adam spent these moments thinking about the succubus' words.

Then he remembered the village. He remembered his friends being ripped apart, like meat before a butcher.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get there earlier," the succubus said. "I—"

Adam began to laugh. It wasn't the laughter of someone who'd experienced something amusing, nor of someone expressing their joy.

"I can't believe it," Adam said. "From what I was taught, succubi were masters of tempting humans. I was expecting a speech that could make a king throw away his kingdom just for the chance to kiss your feet. But _this_ is all you have? A pathetic sob story that wouldn't fool a child?"

"I—look, I'm—"

"Stay away from me!" Adam shouted.

Adam quickly picked up a sharp rock from the ground and held it to his neck. The succubus was reaching out to him, but she quickly pulled her hand back when he did this.

"Whatever you want with me, you need me alive, don't you!?" Adam said. "That's something easy enough to prevent!"

"Please, just put that down!" the succubus said, in a voice that sounded desperate.

"If you don't want me to die, that's also easy," Adam said. "Stay away. Let me leave this forest. If you can't even do that, how do you expect me to trust you?"

Adam walked over to his belongings, keeping a wary eye on the succubus. Fortunately, she did not attempt to approach him. He returned the dagger to the sheath on his belt, dropped the rock, then picked up his sword and shield. He decided to leave his saddlebag behind; it would only slow him down, and he didn't have any particular attachment to the contents.

"I'm leaving," Adam declared. "Don't even think about following me—I can end my life before you even get close."

"Wait, you can't just go off on your own!" the succubus insisted. "There are arachnes roaming around, you—"

"So?" Adam replied flippantly. "What do I have to worry about? I'm a hero. It's my job to deal with monsters."

Adam strode off into the forest. He looked over his shoulder several times, but the succubus did not follow him.

_Good,_ Adam thought._ Still can't let down my guard, there's always the chance she'll try again._

_Now, what should I do? I could go on to Valeria and tell them that their werewolf problem is dealt with, but they might not believe me without proof. Just being a hero wouldn't be enough—a few months back, they had a problem with a hero abusing his privileges, so they still have some distrust towards heroes._

_Proof… hmm. If I look around, I should be able to find some. A single werewolf head should be enough._

Adam spent almost twenty minutes searching the forest for signs of the battle. He went as quickly as possible, since the sun would soon set. Eventually, he discovered traces of monsters: tracks left behind by numerous two-clawed feet, small pieces of chitin caught on bushes, and threads of silk that were far thicker than a normal spider could produce.

_So she _was_ telling the truth about the arachnes after all… it doesn't matter. Those arachnes almost certainly found the remains of our battle and scavenged what they could. I just need to get a werewolf head from them._

With a complete lack of concern, as if walking through a garden, Adam followed the arachnes' tracks. The light of day disappeared, but Adam merely created a small ball of magical light to illuminate his path.

After ten minutes of walking, Adam came across tracks that were extremely fresh.

_Now that I'm this close, they've definitely noticed my light. They should be making their move right about…_

_…__Now._

Adam ducked, evading the clawed leg that sliced through the former location of his head. He swung his sword to the left, piercing through chitin and splashing green blood across the ground. The arachne leaped back, hissing in some strange language that Adam didn't understand.

Two more arachnes appeared, leaving Adam entirely surrounded. In this situation, a hero from the legends would have been able to prevail, but Adam was far from that level. In this situation, Adam could only hope to slay one of them before he was brought down.

Suddenly, Adam felt a wave of demonic energy strike him. It was an unpleasant sensation… yet it was also startlingly familiar.

_Did one of the arachnes just—no, wait!_

To Adam's surprise, the three arachnes were in a worse situation than him. The spider monsters swayed unsteadily and shrieked in confusion.

_This is sleep magic_, Adam thought. _Arachnes aren't good with magic, in general—but these kinds of magic are the specialty of succubi!_

A winged silhouette landed on one of the arachnes, plunging a spear into its upper body. It leaped into the air and repeated this feat on a second arachne. However, the third recovered from the mental assault and swung its arm, knocking the attacker to the ground. But before the arachne could finish the attacker off, Adam lunged forward and cut off its head.

Adam turned to his rescuer and snarled, "I thought I told you not to follow me!"

"Is that how you thank someone for saving your life?" the succubus—Lilith, retorted. "And were you seriously trying to kill yourself right now!?"

There was a tense silence, then Adam laughed humourlessly. "I was. And it would have worked if you didn't interfere!"

"You… I can't say I understand what you've gone through, but—"

"That's right, you don't understand," Adam said. "There's no way a human and a monster can ever understand each other. Like I said before: stay away from me."

Using a nearby tree as a support, the succubus got to her feet. "Fine. If you're going to be that stupid, I won't stop you," she said, glaring at Adam. Then she picked up the spear, which she'd dropped when the arachne struck her, and began limping away.

Adam leaned against a tree and tried to put the succubus out of his head. He looked back at the bodies of the three arachnes. Each one was soaked in blood, both green and deep red. And from the smell, Adam knew that some of the latter was human in origin.

_That's right… I need to bury their bodies_, Adam thought wearily. _I can't let them be eaten by animals or monsters._

Sheathing his sword, Adam walked towards the direction the arachnes had come from.

_I didn't make a mistake… Monsters are evil beings that prey on humans. I—we saw countless examples of that, in the past. People torn apart, villages burned down, not even children spared… In all of history, there hasn't been a single monster that wasn't hostile to humans._

Adam looked back. His magic light allowed him to just barely discern the succubus in the distance. Due to her slow gait, she hadn't made much distance between herself and him.

_…__slow?_

_That's right, she was injured saving me just now. But—but it could be a trick, to make me lower my guard._

Adam examined the arachne bodies again. Even in death, their massive frames spoke of the fearsome strength they once possessed.

_And from my training and experience, I can tell: that arachne was _not_ holding back when it attacked her. On top of that, succubi are relatively frail for monsters, so a single unlucky hit would have killed her._

…_It can't be._

Adam burst into a sprint. He soon caught up with the succubus—with Lilith. He now realised the extent of her injuries: the arachne's pincers had left two gouges in her left leg, deep enough that the muscle was visible.

Lilith turned around. "What are you—?"

"Wait—I'm sorry!" Adam said. "I've—I've been an idiot. Please, let me make it up to you."

-ooo-

Adam and Lilith both sat on a log, the former laying his hands on the latter's leg. A soft white light emanated from his palms, causing torn muscle fibres to reconnect and skin to regrow. It was fortunate that the wound wasn't more severe, such as a complex fracture or damage to the internal organs. Only true mages, those who had dedicated their lives to the craft, had the skill needed to heal such wounds.

"You didn't need to do this," Lilith said quietly. "Something like this would have healed on its own."

"And how long would that have taken?" Adam replied. "Even if you can fly, having an injured leg should still be a hindrance."

If he was honest with himself, Adam wouldn't have left the wound alone even if it was a simple scratch. He had grown up in an orphanage run by the Order, and his caretakers had impressed upon him the virtue of helping those in need.

_Though the same people also taught me that monsters were all evil beings_, Adam mused. _Not that I can blame them, since that's true for the vast majority of monsters._

After the healing was complete, Lilith helped Adam bury the bodies of his friends. It was an unpleasant task, but it needed to be done. While they dug the graves, Adam explained his own mission to Lilith.

"—Now that the werewolves are gone, that mission is complete," Adam said. He emptied out his saddlebag—which Lilith had brought here—and placed a werewolf head in it. "If I was on my own, I would recruit a—a new group, and continue acting as a hero. It's not uncommon for those who fight monsters to suffer casualties… But what do you want to do?"

"I had a plan for this situation, but I wasn't expecting it to happen with a hero," Lilith replied. "To be honest, I don't really have any major goal. I just want to see the world and, at the same time, prove that monsters aren't just vicious brutes. Even if I can't exactly announce that publicly… For now, I think we should head to Valeria; it's the biggest town around here, so it's the best place for gathering information."

Adam agreed with this idea. They finished burying the bodies, then proceeded towards Valeria. Fortunately, they encountered no further obstacles along the way. The sun was rising as they finally reached the edge.

_Working alongside a monster… it's something I never imagined could actually happen,_ Adam thought. _Even now, I have trouble believing it. But I can't deny that she risked her life, twice, to save me. Now, I just have to make the best of this situation._


	3. Chapter 3: Recovery

_AN: Sorry for the delay, I've been dealing with real life and writer's block. Here's my first chapter for the year. Hopefully, I should be able to get future chapters out more quickly._

* * *

In the distance, they could see Valeria: a town more than twice as large as Adam's home of Merith, with a population of over seven thousand. Adam had been here a few times before, as part of his duty as a hero.

As they walked through the fields surrounding the town, a question arose in Adam's mind.

"Lililth, how are you going to enter the town?" Adam asked. "You may look more like a human than most monsters, but—well, any human would recognise you as a succubus."

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "You don't know? Hmm… I suppose it would be easier to just show you."

Before Adam could ask what she was talking about, Lilith transformed. Her horns, wings and tail all withdrew into her body, leaving no trace that they were ever present. Her hair darkened to a light brown, while her skin gained the tan of someone who spent most of their life outdoors. And the transformation wasn't just limited to her body. Her dress was previously backless, to allow her wings and tail to move freely, but the fabric expanded until it covered her back.

Now, the succubus was indistinguishable from any human peasant woman. The spear in her hand didn't detract from this image at all: in this world, a weapon was considered an everyday item.

"We succubi can change our appearances, including our clothes," Lilith explained. "Though there's a limit to what we can do: we can't make weapons or armour, for example. Didn't they tell you that in your training?"

"No… they didn't," Adam replied.

Adam was struck by a growing sense of dread. In his lesson on succubi, he'd been taught that these depraved monsters snuck into human dwellings to seduce men in their beds, relying on their unnatural beauty and mind-affecting magic to compensate for their monstrous nature. There was nothing about succubi being able to disguise as humans… and judging from Lilith's explanation, this wasn't a rare or unusual ability for them.

Lilith looked concerned as well. "You could try contacting your colleagues and telling them this. You wouldn't be able to tell them the truth about _how_ you learned it… but you might be able to pass it off as a rumour you heard from someone else."

This suggestion was, judged purely on its own merits, a sensible one, but it also re-ignited the conflict in Adam's mind. It was his duty as a hero—and as a human—to communicate any information that would help in combating monsters. Yet that very same duty forbade him from working alongside monsters, or even allowing them to live.

Adam shook his head and tried to suppress these feelings.

With no further distractions, the hero and succubus entered Valeria. They attracted relatively few glances, despite the former wearing bloodstained armour.

Under normal circumstances, Adam and his friends would have split up at this point. Marcus and John would take their gear to undergo maintenance, Hogan and Cutter would restock their supplies and find them an inn to stay in, and Adam himself would go to the local church to report the outcome of his mission. They would then meet up and have breakfast while they planned their next move.

_But they're gone now… there's no changing that,_ Adam thought.

Returning to the present, Adam showed Lilith around the town of Valeria. From doing this, he learned more about his new companion.

"What is he doing to that meat?" Lilith asked, pointing towards a street merchant who was frying some chicken. "Is he trying to destroy it?"

"No, it's actually a method of cooking it," Adam replied. "They put the food into hot oil to—well, I'm not sure of the details, but it helps to cook the food, and leaves it with a brown crust on the outside."

"Huh… back where I come from, we don't have anything like this," Lilith said.

"In that case, why don't you try some, young lady?" The merchant called out, having heard Lilith's words. He pierced an already-cooked piece of chicken on a skewer and held it up.

Lilith glanced briefly at Adam, who shrugged. She paid the merchant with some copper coins, then accepted the food and began eating. She took small, measured bites at first, then started wolfing down the chicken in a manner that would probably cause a noblewoman to faint.

The merchant laughed. "I don't know where you've come from, but welcome to Valeria, young lady. Hope you two enjoy your stay."

Adam decided to buy a skewer for himself. After the two of them finished eating, they moved on.

Their next stop was a blacksmith. Adam dropped off his sword to be resharpened—cutting through the sturdy bodies of monsters quickly wore down even quality blades—and his armour to be cleaned and repaired. Here, Lilith was fascinated by the variety of metal goods on display, which ranged from weapons and tools through to ornaments.

Next was the church, as Adam didn't want to spend more time than necessary carrying a decomposing werewolf head. Lilith refused to enter with him: it was only natural that a monster would refuse to enter a bastion of the Order.

Adam told the priest in charge that his group had succeeded in killing the werewolves and also a band of arachnes, but not without the loss of everyone save Adam himself. He also reported the presence of lamias and harpies nearby, resulting in an alarmed reaction by the priest.

"This couldn't happen at a worse time," the priest said, his brow furrowed. "All of our forces with experience at fighting monsters—our heroes, our mages, our war priests—are away on their own missions. That's why we called for your help. All we have are new recruits who've yet to see true combat. If you were to lead a group of those—"

"—They would break upon facing monsters," Adam finished. "We would all be killed, with nothing to show for it."

The priest nodded grimly. "It seems that the monsters have grown far more active in recent years. In the past, we never needed to deploy more than half of our best forces at any one time."

Adam remained silent. His job was to track down and slay monsters that were reported to him; speculation about the large-scale strategies of monsters was outside his purview.

"Regardless, I must thank you for bringing in this information," the priest said. "Do you have anything else to report?"

"No… although, I do have one question," Adam said. "I heard that there was distrust towards heroes here, because one of my former colleagues abused his position. But you haven't doubted anything I've said."

A slight smile appeared on the priest's face, one that contained no trace of mockery. "Because, Hero Adam, I've been performing my duty for the Chief God for over forty years. I've provided guidance to hundreds of lost souls. Because of this, I can tell when someone is grieving… even when they try to hide it. That is how I can be certain you are telling the truth."

"I see… that's all I wanted to know," Adam said, before turning in an attempt to leave.

"Hold on just a moment," the priest said. "Listen to me, Adam. You must stop acting as a hero, at least for now. Not just because there is no one here capable of accompanying you, but also because _you_ will die an early death unless you take time to recover. It won't be an easy process, I'll admit… but if you choose to stay here, know that you may consult me at any time."

"I understand," Adam said. "Thank you for the advice, Father."

Adam left the church. He found Lilith leaning against a nearby wall and doing her best not to attract attention.

The two of them then spent some time browsing the market, during which Adam related what had happened in the church. When the sun reached its zenith, they went to an inn near the town's main entrance to have lunch. After obtaining their food—which took longer than expected as Lilith had trouble deciding what to eat—they sat down and began discussing the day's events.

"This is something I've been wondering about," Adam said, while stirring his pork-and-vegetable stew. "You don't seem to know much about… how people around here do things."

"That's true," Lilith replied. She glanced around, then leaned forward and said quietly, "Before meeting you, I didn't go into human towns except for when I needed supplies that I couldn't find out in the wild. I didn't want to—didn't want to take the risk of anyone discovering who I am."

"It must be rough, living like that," Adam said.

"It is, I'll admit, but it's better than staying at home," Lilith replied. She leaned back and took a bite of her chicken roll. "The… village I came from didn't have much contact with the rest of the world. We had a visitor once every few years, on average. Yet from what I've heard, a town like this gets merchants and travellers every single day, and even small villages don't go for more than a few months without visitors."

"…How on earth did your village survive like that?" Adam asked. "I mean, I suppose if you just focused on the essentials, you could technically _survive_, but it wouldn't be comfortable by any means."

"Everyone being able to use magic helped, but you're right: now that I'm here, I realise just how uncomfortable it was," Lilith replied. "And it isn't just limited to my village: none of the other m—the other villages in the region tried to maintain a friendly relationship with the others. When I decided to leave my home, I didn't stop in any of the other villages. At best, they wouldn't have let me in, and at worst, they wouldn't have let me leave alive."

These words left Adam dumbfounded. He, along with everyone else he'd known, didn't waste time thinking about how the everyday lives of monsters. However, now that he'd met and talked to a monster, he'd started forming expectations of them. He'd expected that at least the more humanoid monsters would have _something_ resembling human society.

"For these reasons, our technology, our culture, everything is behind the rest of the world," Lilith continued. She gestured towards her meal. "Even something like this, something that's completely ordinary to you, is a major luxury where I'm from because su—my people don't raise animals. We only hunt them, so meat's only eaten by those on top of the hierarchy. The last time there were any major changes in our society… was during the last invasion by the Demon Lord."

This time, Lilith's words sent a chill down Adam's spine. The Demon Lord was one of very few beings whose name was known by every person in this world, no matter their race or allegiance. The Demon Lord was the ruler of all monsters, the one being who could make them put aside their differences and attack humanity as a cohesive army. The Demon Lord possessed power unrivalled by anyone else on the surface world, power exceeded by only the gods. The invasion by the previous Demon Lord had been among the most devastating in history: until the Demon Lord was slain by Hero Justinia, three countries were destroyed and over a million humans had died. Even now, a hundred years later, the scars of that invasion could still be felt… and it was only a matter of time before a new Demon Lord rose up and repeated the process.

_It's always been this way: the Demon Lord appears and incites the monsters to attack humanity, then a hero slays the Demon Lord and the monsters retreat,_ Adam thought. _There's a legend written for every turn of the cycle… but the legends don't talk about those who died without anything to show for it._

"Adam? Are you alright?" Lilith asked. "Are you thinking about… well… your friends again?"

Adam silently nodded.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought up—"

"It's fine… this is something I have to learn to deal with regardless," Adam said. He looked around at the interior of the inn: the rough stone walls, the furniture that had seen countless patrons come and go. "You know, I first met Marcus in a place much like this. Marcus is—was the archer in my group," he added for Lilith's benefit. "When I first met him, he was drunk and had started a fight with random strangers. It wasn't the first time he did that, and it certainly wasn't the last. He was—he was the person who was always trying to enjoy life, no matter the consequences."

"He sounds like an interesting person," Lilith said. "But why did he end up joining you?"

"I actually wondered that myself," Adam said. "Back then, I wondered if he was just joining my group for the thrill: if he was, I would have turned him down, since someone who didn't take the job seriously would just be a liability. But when I asked him, you know what he said?"

"What did he say?" Lilith asked.

"Um, you're not supposed to—never mind, it's not important," Adam said. "Anyway, Marcus said to me, 'I'm here to protect everyone who can't fight like I can, so they can enjoy _their_ lives without being afraid of the dark.'"

After hearing these words, Lilith lowered her head. She murmured, "I'm sorry I couldn't—"

"It wasn't your fault," Adam said emphatically. "I've been in this line of work for years. I know what it's like to be too late… and I also know that it doesn't help to get lost in what you _could_ have done."

This was one of the lessons that Adam had learned in his training. Of course, neither or nor his instructors ever expected that it would be used to cheer up a monster.

After that, the topic turned towards what Lilith had been doing recently. She explained that, after leaving the region dominated by monsters, she had spent ten months wandering the continent. Initially, she'd avoided contact with humans outside of the occasional visit to a town. This changed when she encountered another monster attacking a human. Specifically, it was an alraune, a monster with the form of an enormous flower with tooth-lined petals and digestive acids in place of nectar.

"That was the first time I killed a monster," Lilith said. "Although it wasn't like how I met you. I set fire to the alraune and, once I made sure that the human was free and the alraune would eventually burn to death, I ran off without letting the human see me."

Lilith related several more incidents in which she'd killed other monsters to save humans, still without revealing her own identity as a monster. In these, she had only intervened when there was one or, at most, two monsters. It may have been cold, but Adam didn't blame her for this, since succubi were not well-equipped to fight other monsters.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a shout from outside the inn:

"Monsters! In the forest! They—you have to—"

Adam immediately stood up and went outside, Lilith close behind him. He spotted a dishevelled man running through the street. A few seconds later, the man collapsed to the ground. From his trembling body and heavy breathing, he was clearly exhausted.

Adam hurried to the strange man's side and examined his condition. Aside from the signs of fatigue, he had various small cuts and scrapes—consistent with someone who'd been running carelessly through a forest—but nothing worse.

"It's nothing serious: as long as he gets proper rest, he should make a full recovery," Adam announced to the gathering crowd.

The man suddenly reached up and grasped Adam's hand with his own. "Wait!" he said hoarsely. "You have to listen… there are monsters, just…"

Out of the corner of his eye, Adam saw Lilith flinch slightly. He asked, "What monsters did you see? What were they doing?"

"They were… lamias… the ones with the snake tails…" the man gasped. "I was at the edge of the forest… saw them in the distance."

Adam's breath caught in his throat. It could only be the lamias that had devastated Idris. With the werewolves and arachnes eliminated from the forest, it seemed that the lamias had moved in.

_And if they're so close to a large town… they must be getting bold,_ Adam thought. _Or they somehow learned of this town being short on defenders. Either way, it's only a matter of time before they attack._

Adam confirmed that this was all the information the man had, then asked two bystanders to bring him to the church for treatment. He was then surrounded by the crowd, who were desperate for answers.

"First werewolves and now lamias—what should we do!?"

"Hey, you're a hero, aren't you? Can't you defeat the lamias?"

"Don't trust heroes! They say they're here to save us, but they're just here to eat our food and rape our daughters!"

"Don't you dare insult a hero! That's no different from insulting the Chief God!"

Not only were there too many questions to answer, but some of the townsfolk were actually on the verge of fighting. It was a great relief to Adam when the town guards arrived to disperse the crowd.

Once everything had settled down, Adam and Lilith returned to the inn. They rented a room so they could talk privately, leaving their unfinished lunch behind for the innkeeper to clear away.

"Sorry I stayed out of that," Lilith said. "I, well, I still can't deal with crowds of humans."

"It's fine, I had trouble with that crowd as well," Adam said.

"More importantly… what are you going to do now?" Lilith asked. "Before we left the forest, you said you were going to recruit more allies here and continue acting as a hero. But from what you told me before—"

"Yes, the situation has changed," Adam said. "All of the people here who are capable of fighting monsters are away. There's just me and you… but you don't have to—"

Lilith shook her head. "I do. You don't have to worry: this is what _I_ want. If anything, you're the one who needs to rest, aren't you? Isn't that what the priest said to you?"

"…I'll be fine," Adam insisted. "And if it's about Marcus and the others, you don't have to—"

"That's not why I want to do this—at least, it's not the _only_ reason," Lilith said. "How should I explain this… alright, let me ask you one question: why do you want to be a hero?"

"Huh? I… well, when I was growing up I wanted to become a hero so I could protect humans from monsters," Adam replied. "Obviously, this was before I met you and learned that the world is more complicated than that."

"Thank you, but that's not what I meant," Lilith said. "Why do you want to be a _hero_, specifically? Why not be, say, a healer who treats injuries and leaves the fighting to other people? From what I've seen, you have the skill for that. Or any other job that doesn't put you at risk of being killed and eaten by monsters?"

This was a much more difficult question, one that required Adam to spend the better part of a minute to answer.

"If I have to say why… well, I could say that it's because there's always a shortage of heroes, due to the high death rate, so I want to make up for it. But to be honest, I want to be a hero so I can fight monsters personally. I… wouldn't be satisfied just sitting back in a safe place while others are fighting. It's not rational… and I know it's insulting to every person who doesn't fight, since their jobs are no less important… but that's why I'm a hero."

This was something that Adam had only previously revealed to his late friends. He was therefore nervous at revealing it to someone who was a relative stranger. Fortunately, his fears were unfounded.

"It's the same for me," Lilith said. "I could have just kept myself disguised as a human and stayed far away from any other monsters. But I kept wandering around, fighting other monsters, because I wasn't satisfied with just keeping myself safe. As long as there are monsters who see no problem with attacking and eating humans, it's my responsibility to stop them."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "That's a never-ending task, there's as many monsters like that as there are stars in the sky,"

"But that doesn't stop you from fighting, does it?" Lilith said. "Nor does it stop any of the other heroes."

"…That's true," Adam said, chuckling slightly.

"Anyway, I know that I can't deal with every other monster by myself," Lilith continued. "But I won't run away when those monsters are right in front of me. That's why I'm coming with you. I won't let you fight on your own, especially not after what you've been through."

These words reminded Adam again of his friends. Although their reasons were different, every single one of them had insisted on joining.

_I never expected a succubus to say the same thing to me, though,_ Adam thought. _It's… unsettling, but not as much as when we first met. _

After a few moments of thought, Adam said, "Alright. If you're fine with someone like me, welcome aboard," and held out his hand.

Lilith stared at the hand awkwardly, then said, "Sorry, I'm not sure what this gesture means."

"Oh! Um… it's used for various reasons, but here I'm using it to seal an agreement," Adam explained. "Two people hold each other's hands and shake them. It's… well, it's just called a 'hand-shake'".

"You learn something new every day…" Lilith muttered to herself. She shook Adam's hand, using slightly more strength than needed. "More importantly, I accept!"

_Working with a monster, for the express purpose of killing other monsters… it must be the first time in history that this has ever happened,_ Adam thought. _If any of my colleagues, any other human were to hear of this, they would think I've fallen. But to me, it feels like my eyes have finally been opened._


	4. Chapter 4: New Strategies

The next morning, they left Valeria and returned to the forest.

Adam, now wearing his armour again, said, "This should be far enough. At least, I can't sense anyone nearby."

"I can't either… though there are some monsters that could theoretically be here and able to hide from us," Lilith commented. "Though if there was a baphomet around here, we'd have much bigger problems… Anyway, time to fly."

Lilith reverted to her succubus form and took to the air. She soon disappeared from view.

The plan was for Lilith to locate the lamias' nest. A succubus in the air could scout much more effectively than a human on foot, and, in the worst-case scenario of her being discovered, she could quickly escape. It wasn't without risk, since there was the chance of an archer or mage being present among the lamias, but it was the best option available.

In the meantime, Adam could only wait. This was something he was very familiar with: hero work didn't consist solely of fighting monsters. On more than a dozen occasions, he'd had to set up an ambush. There were monsters in this world that were too powerful for Adam's group to defeat in a fair fight. There were also monsters that preferred weak prey and would flee if faced with trained warriors.

_John always hated those times,_ Adam thought. _He accepted that they were necessary, but it didn't stop him from complaining._

_…__I never thought the day would come when I would miss those complaints._

Adam shook his head. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the past. And if he wanted to honour John's memory, he ought to focus on training himself to avoid a repeat of the ill-fated battle with the werewolves.

While he waited for Lilith to return, Adam decided to train. He drew his sword and held it in front of him, such that the tip of the sword was just above the level of his eyes. He imagined a monster charging at him: a lamia, whipping its tail to propel itself so that it could tear him apart and feast on his flesh. Then he stepped forward and slashed, cutting through the lamia's flank, through the muscles connected to the tail. He ducked, avoiding a retaliatory swipe from the lamia's claws. Finally, he stepped forward once more and decapitated his foe.

Adam repeated this process, each time trying out a different approach against the imaginary lamia. Once he'd exhausted all the possibilities he could think of, he moved on to other types of monsters. The harpy was the most troublesome opponent: though it was fragile enough that only one strike was needed to take it down, its speed and agility made it a formidable threat, even in a cluttered environment like this forest. After going through the simulated battle six times, Adam concluded that he had a low chance of defeating a harpy, due to being alone and having no means of ranged attack. If he was genuinely attacked by a harpy, his best option would be to retreat into the dense undergrowth and wait for the harpy to lose interest.

_No wonder my trainers always told me that having allies is crucial,_ Adam thought. _Now, what monster should I try next? Another flyer?_

Adam imagined another type of flying monster, one that was slower than a harpy but compensated for this with greater intelligence and magical prowess. Moreover, their magic focused on disrupting their victim's heart and mind. Fighting such an opponent would be troublesome, but Adam needed to think of ways to do so, as—

Adam's sword slipped from his hands. He quickly snatched it up again, but this did nothing to quell his shock. He then sat down on a log and took several measured breaths.

_I thought I'd already managed to get used to working with her… it seems that two decades of being taught that monsters are evil isn't something I can escape that easily._

A few minutes of anguished thinking later, Adam heard the sound of flapping wings. He looked up to see Lilith descending through the canopy. The succubus landed next to him.

"I found them," Lilith said. "They're about four hundred paces east of here, using a cave for their nest. I only saw one of them outside the cave, the rest were sleeping inside, but from the number of tracks I saw, there's about six in total. And… I saw one of them throwing away some human bones."

"…I see," Adam said. "Even if there are no more lamias beyond what you saw, they're still too much for the two of us to deal with."

"Yeah… when I first saw the cave, I wondered if it would be possible to collapse it while all the lamias are inside," Lilith continued. "But they wouldn't have chosen a cave that was unstable. With just our power, we wouldn't be able to collapse it before they notice and escape."

The two of them discussed various options for slaying the lamias. All of them proved to be impractical. Some of them, like the proposal to start a forest fire around the lamias' nest, had the additional problem of causing collateral damage even if they succeeded.

_In the end, it turns out that it's hopeless to try to defeat a group of monsters with just two people,_ Adam thought._ We just can't…_

_Wait, 'people'?_

Adam glanced at his succubus companion again. Her form was clearly different from that of a human, yet at this moment, she was just as lost as he was.

_That's right… I mustn't forget that monsters are people as well. And because of that… perhaps I could try strategies that would normally be used against humans?_

"Lilith?" Adam said. "Do you remember the harpies I told you about earlier?"

"The ones that attacked the same village as the lamias?" Lilith replied.

"Yes… I think that we might be able to use them," Adam said. "We can't defeat the lamias with just the two of us… so why don't we 'borrow' the help of other monsters? We could kill two birds with one stone—that is, we could solve two problems with the same action."

Lilith's eyes widened. "That… could work. How many harpies did you see back then?"

"If my memories are correct, about a dozen of them," Adam replied.

"In that case, if we could somehow get the two groups in the same place at the same time, they should fight each other," Lilith said. "Harpies don't normally try to contest other monsters for territory, but with that much of a numerical advantage… Though getting them in the same place won't be easy. And even if it works, there's still… Either way, first we need to find out where the harpies are."

"Will you be alright?" Adam asked. "Tracking lamias is one thing, but tracking other flying monsters—"

"I understand why you're worried, but I should be fine," Lilith said. "I've dealt with other flying monsters before."

In the end, despite his misgivings, Adam had to let Lilith go out again. Exploiting the harpies was their best option in this situation—which showed just how dire the situation was, as this option still came with considerable risk.

And if Adam was honest with himself, he was glad that Lilith was gone. After what he'd imagined during training… it was difficult to face her.

-ooo-

Lilith flew through the sky above the forest canopy, holding her spear in her left hand. Numerous birds shared the sky with her. Normally, these birds would have been disturbed by a monster passing by. They were only calm because Lilith had hidden herself with an illusion that reduced her apparent size, making her appear no larger than any of the birds.

_Though this isn't perfect,_ Lilith thought. _Especially not against harpies, with their sharp eyesight. I just have to hope that I see them before they see me._

_Now, where could they be? Time to review what I know._

_First, harpies nest in high places. They have no fear of heights at all. And the higher their nest, the safer it is from attack. That narrows down the list of possible locations. If they're nesting in this forest, they'll be in one of the tallest trees. If they're nesting somewhere else, they'll be on the summit of a tall hill or mountain._

_Second, harpies are extremely mobile, so their idea of a 'convenient distance' is different from everyone else's. They don't need to live close to water or food or any other resource. For the same reason, they don't care about rugged terrain that would be a hindrance to most other monsters or to humans. That… increases the list of possibilities._

_No, wait, that's not quite accurate. They _do_ care about rugged terrain, since it also makes it more difficult for others to attack their nest._

_Alright. Taking all this into consideration, where would the harpies be?_

Lilith spent over two hours searching. Even with her knowledge of harpy psychology, it was still an arduous task to search such a big area. It didn't help that she couldn't fully put herself into the mindset of a harpy: while harpies and succubi were both flying monsters, the latter were much weaker fliers and spent most of their time on the ground. By the time she finally found her target, the sun had reached its zenith and Lilith was sweating in the heat.

In the distance, Lilith spotted a moving blur that was considerably larger than any bird. She immediately began to descend—though she was careful to do so gradually, to avoid attracting attention. She landed on a branch, altered her illusion so that it now camouflaged her against the foliage, and continued observing.

The blur moved around the area at a leisurely pace: the behaviour of something, or someone, searching for food. Eventually, it started moving in Lilith's direction.

Lilith pressed herself against the trunk of the tree. She clutched her spear tightly, ready to fight in case she was discovered.

A harpy flew overhead. It had dark brown plumage and a wingspan that was twice its height. What drew Lilith's attention the most were the sharp talons: designed for the purpose of tearing apart humans, they were equally threatening to a relatively fragile monster like a succubus.

Lilith remained in her hiding place until she could no longer detect the harpy at all. Then, careful not to make any noise, she descended to the forest floor and headed in the direction of where she'd first seen the harpy.

Lilith spent half an hour on foot, during which she traversed two hills and a stream. She eventually encountered more signs of harpy presence: avian droppings too large to have been made by normal birds, large brown feathers matted with filth. Following these signs, she reached an enormous tree, one that seemed to touch the clouds. Harpies flew to and from the tree's upper branches.

Lilith spent ten minutes watching the harpy nest. She observed a total of fifteen harpies, which would also be the entirety of the flock: harpies, like many monsters, didn't care for their young, so there wouldn't be any chicks in the nest. She noticed that the incoming harpies were carrying loads in their talons. However, the distance prevented Lilith from discerning if these loads were humans. Unfortunately, Lilith didn't know any magic that could improve her vision, and it would be suicidal to climb a tree for a better view.

After gathering as much information as she could, Lilith began to return. Along the way, she thought about the plan.

_With this many harpies, it should work. We just have to trick them into fighting the lamias. One side will eventually win, but they'll be so weakened that the two of us can finish them off._

As she walked, Lilith thought about how lucky she was to encounter a hero who was willing—eventually—to work with her. If she was still alone, she wouldn't have been able to achieve feats like this.

And there was another advantage to this situation. By using her looks and her magic, both tailored specifically to beguile human men, she could break down the hero's resistance and make him her puppet. She could use his knowledge and connections to infiltrate the Order and weaken it from the inside, by corrupting and assassinating key individuals. She could—

Lilith dug her fingernails into her palm with enough force to draw blood.

_No…. I won't. I won't do anything like that. I am _not_ like other monsters._

After taking several deep breaths, Lilith continued moving. She took to the air once she was a safe distance from the harpy nest. It took a few more minutes to return to where Adam was waiting.

The hero had prepared lunch from their rations and various forest plants, so they ate while Lilith told him everything she'd learned. After lunch, they settled on their plan. They needed to be quick: they had only a few hours before the sun set and the lamias all woke up, which would force them to postpone the plan to the next day.

First, Lilith needed to conduct a test. She pressed her palms together for over ten seconds: a posture that had no inherent meaning, but she often used it when she was casting magic that required intense concentration. She then thrust her palms forward, conjuring up four illusions of humans: translucent at first, but after a few seconds they were opaque and—to her eyes at least—indistinguishable from the real thing. Each of the illusions was armed with a spear or an axe.

"That's all I can manage while making them look realistic," Lilith said. "And I still have trouble with voices: I can make them shout and scream, but they won't be able to form coherent words."

"That should be fine for what we need them to do," Adam said. "But do you have enough energy for this?"

Lilith lowered her hands and dismissed the illusion. "When the time comes, I'll be able to maintain this illusion for roughly a minute, that should be enough. But when I combine the cost of that and the cost of hiding myself from the harpies… I won't be able to do much afterwards. It'll be up to you to take care of the ones who are left."

"I can handle that," Adam said.

Lilith nodded and took to the air once more, this time carrying Adam. She deposited him near the lamia nest, then continued flying towards the harpy nest. She was careful to maintain a low altitude, such that she was practically skimming the canopy. When she spotted a harpy again, she descended to the ground, camouflaged herself and then recast the illusion of human travellers.

It took about thirty seconds for the harpy to spot the illusion. Upon doing so, the harpy reduced its speed and began flying in small circles. They spent several seconds looking at the illusion, then flew away in the direction of their nest.

_It… worked,_ Lilith thought. _Now… just have to hope that the next part goes as planned._

Lilith dismissed the illusion and flew back towards the lamia nest. She landed in a nearby tree, concealed herself and began to wait.

Around twenty minutes later, Lilith heard a raucous cacophony: the birds and other forest animals were all calling at once. It didn't take a scholar to recognise that their calls were fearful. Behind her, Lilith heard the sounds of scales sliding over earth: it seemed that the lamias had also noticed the commotion. Lilith took this as her cue to recast the illusion.

The harpies burst into view. There were fifteen of them: it seemed that all of the flock was eager to taste human flesh.

Lilith manipulated the illusion, causing the apparent humans to turn towards the harpies, cry out in shock, and then flee… in the direction of the lamia nest.

The harpies dived in pursuit of the illusory humans, moving as fast as arrows. Just before they reached their targets, Lilith dismissed the illusion, causing the harpies to fly through empty air and end up right in front of the lamias.

_My part… is done,_ Lilith thought. _Now… I can only leave it up to him._

The two groups of monsters were both shocked at each other's presence. At first, there was a confusing mess of voices that made it impossible for Lilith to hear what was being said. However, it wasn't long before the largest harpy and the largest lamia shouted for their respective groups to settle down. These were undoubtedly the leaders: power was the main determinant of leadership in monsters, and for the vast majority of monster races, power was correlated with size. Additionally, judging from their body shapes, both of the leaders were female.

The lamia leader slithered forward and declared, "This is our territory. Get out, and stay out, if you value your lives."

"So you're the ones who cleaned out that human village near here?" the harpy leader asked.

"We are, what of it?" the lamia leader replied.

"Then it's your fault that we haven't tasted human in months!" the harpy leader shouted, accompanied by angry screeches from her fellows.

"Your failures have nothing to do with us!" the lamia leader shouted back. "If you want humans, why don't you visit that town over there? Or are you too weak to even do that?"

The harpy leader shook with anger at these words. "Weak? I'll show you just how weak we are! Once we take your territory, we'll have all of the humans to ourselves!"

Letting out war cries, the harpies and lamias clashed.

The next minute was a chaotic flurry of feathers, scales and blood. A lamia crushed a harpy in their coils, only for a second harpy to land on their back and slice their throat. Two harpies worked together to inflict fatal wounds on a lamia, but the lamia used the last of their strength to smash them with their tail.

Then there were the two leaders. They fought more skilfully than their subordinates: the harpy leader dodging most attacks, the lamia leader blocking them. But eventually, the lamia leader clipped her opponent's wing with a strike from her tail. The harpy leader slowed down, allowing the lamia leader to grab her and immediately snap her neck.

By this point, there was only one harpy remaining. They fled after seeing the death of their leader. However, the lamia leader coiled her tail around a large rock and threw it into the air, striking down the harpy.

"That's the last of them!" the lamia leader said. She looked around and grimaced, likely because there was only one other lamia left alive.

Then Adam made his entrance. He emerged from his hiding place in the nearby bushes and walked up to the lamias.

"A hero?" the lamia leader hissed. "Then… the harpies coming here, that was you!?"

Adam didn't say a word in response.

"Damn you… if it wasn't for you!"

Both surviving lamias charged at Adam, swinging their claws and muscular tails.

In a single motion, Adam dodged the attacks and decapitated the lamia leader. The surviving lamia froze at the sight, an opening that allowed Adam to finish them off as well.

_He defeated both of them… so easily? No wonder the others always taught me… to be careful around heroes… _

_On top of that… working together, the two of us were able to defeat two groups of monsters. But neither of us is all that strong… not in the grand scheme of things. If humans and monsters could work together, what could we achieve?_

_…__No, that's just wishful thinking. Now… I really need to rest._

Lilith tried to return to the ground by jumping down and using her wings to slow her fall. If she was in her normal condition, it would have been an easy task. Due to her current state of exhaustion, she made a mistake in the landing. However, a firm hand grasped her shoulder, keeping her from falling over.

"Are you alright?" Adam asked. Despite his gentle tone of voice, he seemed to be straining to look her in the eye: presumably, it was still difficult for a hero to be friendly with a monster.

"I'm… fine," Lilith replied. "I just need some sleep. More importantly, are _you_ alright? You're the one who actually had to fight them."

"I'm fine as well, it wasn't that difficult since they were already wounded and exhausted," Adam replied. He helped Lilith walk over to a nearby log so she could sit down. "Anyway, I need to collect their heads as proof."

Lilith watched Adam walk over to the corpses, remove the harpy leader's head, and place it and the lamia leader's head into bags. While he performed this grisly work, Lilith chewed on some of the remaining rations.

"You know, until now I never thought about trying to turn monsters against each other, even though I _did_ know that they're often chaotic and disorganised," Adam said. "I thought… I suppose I thought that their common hatred of humans would stop them from truly fighting each other."

"Don't blame yourself… it's hard to understand just how chaotic monsters are until you've had to live among us," Lilith said. "In my case, I had thought of this strategy before, but I could never do it by myself… if any of the monsters managed to survive, just like now, they would have killed me."

"A human and monster working together… it still sounds strange to me, and yet the two of us were able to do something incredible," Adam said.

Lilith blinked in surprise. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

Adam laughed—but in a manner that was pleasant rather than mocking. "It seems we have more in common than I first thought."

For some reason, Lilith felt her cheeks grow warm.


	5. Chapter 5: Similarities

Adam knelt down in the bushes. He checked to confirm that he was well-hidden, then turned his eyes to the lake in front of him.

To the untrained eye, the lake would appear calm and peaceful: water glistening in the light of the afternoon sun, birds diving into the water to catch fish, countless insects buzzing in the air. But to an experienced hero like Adam, there was clearly something wrong with the scene. Specifically, there was a small patch of water that, no matter how long he watched, was never approached by any of the animals.

"There's definitely a monster here," Adam murmured.

"And they're good at hiding, too," Lilith said. She was currently in her human form. "I couldn't sense their demonic energy at all until I got this close. Even here, it's very faint."

"Still, it looks like it—they couldn't control their hunger," Adam said. "They must be devouring every animal that gets close, causing the rest to avoid them. Anyway, now that we've found them, time to lure them out."

First, Adam held out a torch for Adam to ignite with magic. He then picked up a stone and threw it at the unnatural patch of water. The "water" rose up and spilled over the lake's edge. Upon touching the earth, it formed a large blue blob roughly equal in mass to a bear. The blob had no defined shape, instead constantly shifting and stretching.

This was a slime: an amorphous monster composed entirely of blue liquid. They were relatively common and also relatively dangerous, as most weapons were useless against a monster with no blood to spill, no bones to break and no organs to crush. They were capable of engulfing a grown man and dissolving him until there was nothing left but bones. This particular slime had already devoured three humans.

After leaving the lake, the slime flowed towards Adam at a speed surprising for a monster with no legs. Before it could reach him, a fireball flew past Adam and struck the slime head-on. Steam filled the air, accompanied by a sizzling sound and an acrid smell.

The slime had lost nearly half of its mass to the attack, but it did not retreat. It flattened itself to the ground, presumably to make itself a smaller target, then extended a tendril towards Adam.

Adam deflected the tendril with his torch, at the same time raising his shield to block any splashing droplets. Then Lilith took flight and shot down a second fireball, boiling away most of the slime's remaining substance. Only a small blue puddle was left.

Adam cautiously approached the puddle, then prodded it with the torch, but there was no reaction beyond some of the liquid boiling away. His training was indeed correct: slimes had a minimum mass that was needed to stay alive, and below this mass they were no more than inanimate liquid. Adam took out a small glass vial and scooped up some of the liquid.

With their mission complete, the two of them walked away from the lake.

It had been two weeks since Adam and Lilith had first met. They had left Valeria and begun travelling across the country. This was the third time they had taken a mission to kill a monster, or group of monsters.

They soon arrived at a nearby village. It was small, with a population of less than two hundred. There were few agricultural fields nearby, as the land in this area was not fertile enough to support most crops. Instead, there were numerous nets and fishing lines lying around, the sign of a village that depended on fishing. None of these tools showed signs of being used recently. It was only natural: a slime may have been vulnerable to fire, but a few torches would not be enough to kill it.

Even the weakest monsters were too dangerous for the average human to fight. This was why the Chief God created heroes, humans with divine blessings that made them strong enough to fight monsters on equal terms.

Adam and Lilith walked through the main street. They passed between buildings with storm damage that had barely been repaired. They passed by people whose bodies were unhealthily thin, though not yet to the point where it would cause permanent damage—that, at least, was something to be thankful for.

In the centre of the village was a wrinkled old man: the village chief. Despite looking as if he'd seen more than sixty winters, he was standing tall and overseeing the repair of one of the houses.

Adam approached the chief and, holding up the vial, said, "We have completed the mission. The slime is dead and the lake is again safe."

The chief took the vial and tilted it. The liquid within flowed slowly: few things were as viscous as the substance of slime monsters. The chief then nodded, a gesture that caused the surrounding villagers to cheer.

"Thank you for your service," the chief said, handing back the vial. "Still, these are troubling times. Even though there is no Demon Lord at present, monsters continue to be a plague on humanity. And there are rumours of other things… the last trader to pass through spoke of a village whose people had all been killed, yet their bodies had all been given a respectful burial."

"That incident, can you tell me more about that?" Adam asked.

"Unfortunately, that is all I know—the trader was himself terrified and didn't stay in the village for long," the chief said. "More importantly, your reward—"

"There is no need for an excessive reward," Adam said quickly. "All we ask is a meal and lodging for the night. We'll be on our way tomorrow."

These words elicited another cheer from the surrounding villagers.

The chief blinked, then bowed his head. "Thank you—on behalf of my village, I cannot thank you enough for this. It's reassuring to see someone who embodies the virtue of generosity to such an extent. Please, allow me to offer you my own house as lodging."

For a moment, Adam wondered whether he should accept the offer or ask for another, more private building. The former option would make it difficult to talk with his partner. On the other hand, asking for other accommodations would be selfish and potentially arouse suspicion. He eventually decided to accept.

The chief led the two to his house, which wasn't much larger than the houses of the ordinary villagers. He led them inside and to a guest room. This was also a simple affair: two beds with straw mattresses and pillows, and a table with an oil lamp. However, it was practically a luxury to people who spent much of their time sleeping out in the wilderness. After showing them to their room, the chief left.

Adam and Lilith each put down their baggage and selected a bed. They then began to discuss the strange news they'd just heard.

"It doesn't make any sense," Lilith said. "There are many different kinds of monsters, with many different ways of attacking humans: eating them whole, eating only specific organs, drinking blood, or… the method that my kind use. But none of them would take the time to _bury_ their victims."

"Indeed," Adam said. "And neither would human attackers, for that matter…"

They continued talking about this topic for over an hour. By the end, the most plausible explanation they could think of was that the massacre had been exaggerated by the trader, or it was simply a complete lie.

Evening arrived. The two of them left the chief's house to join in on a feast. To celebrate the killing of the slime, the villagers brought out what had to be most of their remaining stored food. There was trout, catfish, pike, salmon and a dozen other types of fish that Adam couldn't name, cooked and seasoned with various herbs.

During the feast, Adam was repeatedly approached by villagers who wished to thank him personally. This happened frequently enough that Adam had to be careful when he was eating, lest he find himself with a mouth full of food while trying to answer the villagers. However, Adam wasn't annoyed at all by this minor inconvenience. Rather, it was times like this that gave him the will to do his duty, to continue fighting against monsters that could kill him with a single lucky blow.

Whenever he had a free moment, Adam checked on Lilith. She was also the recipient of the villagers' thanks, despite her own best efforts to appear inconspicuous. She initially deflected them with replies such as "Just doing my job" and "It was no problem", but over time she was able to hold brief conversations. There was one occasion when Adam had to intervene, when Lilith had trouble answering questions about her past. Still, she had definitely gotten better at interacting with humans.

After the feast, they returned to their room in the chief's house. They were both too full to go to sleep immediately, so they sat on their beds and talked. They didn't bother turning on the lamp, as the darkness wasn't a problem for a hero trained for night fighting or a monster.

"I've noticed that you've been taking proof from each of the monsters we've killed," Lilith said. "From what you've told me, you didn't do that before."

"That? Well, it actually started because of an issue in Valeria," Adam replied. "A few months ago, there was a hero there who abused his position, to make merchants sell to him at unfair discounts and to coerce women into sleeping with him. That led the townspeople to distrust heroes, so I decided to bring proof of my kills when taking a mission from there. Since then… I suppose it's just become a habit for me."

"It just sounds foolish to me," Lilith said. "I could understand if it was just someone _pretending_ to be a hero, but you're telling me that this was an actual hero, who must've fought monsters personally. He should've known how dangerous monsters can be, and that abusing his position would weaken human society, making it easy prey for monsters. But after the things I've seen… I have no problem believing it."

"I think it's because, well, most people don't think in the long term," Adam said. "If you're not sure if you'll have enough to eat tomorrow, why would you care about what happens a year from now? And while that specific problem doesn't apply to heroes, we do have the problem of being more powerful than other humans thanks to the blessings of the Chief God. It can… lead some of our number to think they _deserve_ more than others."

There were a few moments of silence.

Eventually, Lilith responded, lowering her voice to a whisper, "You know, I used to look up to humans. I saw your kind as being much better than monsters, able to work with each other without needing a Demon Lord to force them. Then I left home and entered human territory and… realised how stupid I was. You can laugh if you want."

"I won't, because when I was a child, I used to think the same thing," Adam whispered back. "The Order teaches that humans must be unified in order to stand strong against monsters. When I grew up, I saw, time and time again, that reality wasn't that simple. And I should have seen it sooner… in the orphanage where I grew up, there were children who'd been abandoned by their parents, and it wasn't uncommon for the children to bully each other. But I didn't realise what it meant back then…"

"So… we've both been idiots, then?" Lilith said. "Is that what we take away from this?"

This time, Adam couldn't help but laugh. "That's one way to look at it. But a better message might be that humans and monsters aren't so different. Even if that's because we share the same flaws."

"Hmm… it's still an uncomfortable message, due to the reason behind it, but I agree that it's better than the other one," Lilith said. "Anyway, it's getting late. We'd better get to sleep soon."

"Yeah, I'm starting to feel sleepy as well. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Adam closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Soon, he heard Lilith's breathing shift into the characteristic rhythm of sleep.

Looking at it objectively, this was a bizarre situation. A hero sleeping in the same room as a succubus without trying to kill her, and the succubus not trying to assault him. But after two weeks, Adam no longer felt anything wrong about the situation.

-ooo-

The next morning, Adam and Lilith left the chief's house. As they walked through the village, they saw the villagers picking up their tools and heading out towards the lake. All were happy at being able to engage in their livelihoods again. As in the previous night, the villagers thanked the hero and disguised succubus whenever they saw them.

They fetched their two horses from a small pasture on the outskirts of the village. These horses had originally been bought in Valeria and were kept at this pasture during their mission here.

After leaving the village, the pair decided to ride towards the west, the direction of the Ataraca Desert. This was an immense region of barren sand and rock that few humans inhabited. For this reason, the Order rarely bothered to send heroes or any other troops there. However, monsters were much better at withstanding the harsh conditions, and thus were a major threat to the few humans willing to brave the desert. It was a region sorely in need of help.

For three days, the hero and succubus travelled across the plains without encountering any problems. They rarely needed to tap into their packed rations: with their combined skills, they could easily live off the land. However, on the third day, this peace was broken.

Adam and Lilith were sitting around a campfire, waiting for their dinner to finish cooking: rabbits and a kind of wild tuber that Adam didn't know the name of, but which tasted delicious. The horses were tied to a nearby tree.

Suddenly, Lilith snatched up her spear. Adam didn't know what had alerted her, but he similarly drew his sword.

"What direction?" Adam asked.

Lilith frowned, then replied, "At least two directions, in front and behind us. Not sure about their numbers.

Without saying anything else, the two of them positioned themselves with their backs to each other.

_In this terrain, there's a wide range of monsters that could be present,_ Adam thought. _Minotaurs, centaurs, slimes, the various kinds of insect monsters… all need different tactics to combat them. _

Almost an entire minute passed. Then Adam heard the distinctive twang of bowstrings. He quickly raised his arm to shield his face. Many arrows flew in from all directions. Those aimed at Adam bounced off his armour. Unfortunately, Lilith wasn't wearing armour, and she cried out in pain.

"Lilith!"

"I'm fine! Just—fight!"

Two men burst from the darkness in front of Adam: one wielding an axe, the other a short spear, both wearing rough clothes but no armour. They charged with clear intent to kill.

But they were no match for a hero. Adam dealt with the spear-user first, slashing his sword with enough strength to cut both the spear and the man in half. The axe-user froze in fear after seeing his ally fall so quickly. Adam took this opportunity to cut him down as well.

After taking out the immediate threats, Adam turned back towards Lilith to examine her condition. He was immediately struck by a wave of magic that filled him with drowsiness, which he immediately recognised as sleep magic. He bit his lip, using the pain to clear his head and allow him to keep standing.

Fortunately, the attackers—the bandits were in an even worse condition. Two of them were lying on the ground near Lilith, soundly snoring. And judging from the fact that no more arrows were being fired, Lilith had also managed to affect the archers.

Adam sheathed his sword and hurried over to Lilith. She was on her knee and had two injuries. One was a large scratch on her left arm, caused by a grazing shot. The other was much more serious: an arrow had embedded itself in her abdomen.

_Calm down_, Adam urged himself. _Remember your training. An abdominal wound can be dangerous if an organ is damaged. A damaged liver or kidney will bleed profusely, a damaged stomach or bowel will leak its contents and cause infection. And I can't heal organ damage… No, I need to focus on the things that I _can _do. _

"Lilith, how do you feel?" Adam asked.

"It… doesn't hurt that much," Lilith replied. "Sorry… for hitting you with the spell as well."

"That's fine."

"Anyway… I should be alright, as long as you take the arrow out and heal the wound," Lilith continued.

"I could do that, but if there's a barbed arrowhead, it would do more damage when I pull it out," Adam said. "Hold on a second—"

Looking around, Adam spotted one of the arrows that had missed and hit the ground. He pulled it up and examined the point. Fortunately, the wooden shaft had simply been sharpened to a point rather than being equipped with an arrowhead: the bandits must not have been able to buy or make anything better.

Adam returned to Lilith, grasped the embedded arrow and slowly pulled. During the process, Lilith clenched her teeth and didn't make a sound. The arrow finally came out, along with a jet of red blood.

Next, Adam placed his hand on the wound to stem the bleeding temporarily. He examined the arrow: luckily, there was no trace of gut contents. Putting down the arrow, he then held both his hands over the wound and began the healing spell. A few splinters of wood floated out of the wound, then the flesh started knitting together.

"It was stupid to try fighting when I'm a succubus," Lilith said.

"What?" Adam said. "That's not true—"

"Most monsters would treat arrows like mosquito bites," Lilith insisted, "and slimes wouldn't even notice them. Back before I met you… there were several times when I almost got killed."

"Perhaps, but then those other monsters would also envy the magical talent that succubi have," Adam retorted. "And now we're working together, making us far stronger than when we're alone. If I were on my own, I wouldn't have been able to defeat these bandits."

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better—"

"If I were on my own, I probably wouldn't have noticed the bandits before they attacked," Adam insisted. "And even if I did notice, they would have a decent chance of defeating me. I'm stronger than any one of them, and better equipped, but the advantage of numbers should never be underestimated. On top of that, I'm trained to fight monsters, whereas they clearly have experience against their fellow humans."

Lilith lowered her head. "That's true. But, now that you bring that up… what are we going to do about them?"

Adam finished the healing. He looked towards the still-sleeping bandits, and his expression hardened.

"Good question. To answer that… I should explain that while I was trained to fight monsters, my teachers were also aware that I might eventually encounter human opponents. They therefore trained me to also be capable of dealing with them."

Adam took a deep breath, drew his sword, and continued his explanation.

"These bandits… it would be impractical for just the two of us to transport them elsewhere for judgement. A small village, like the one we recently left, wouldn't be able to deal with this many criminals, but there are no larger villages or towns close to here. And even if we could transport them… in human society, they would be sentenced to either a life of hard labour or, well, to execution."

"You don't have to say anything more," Lilith said. "Besides… it would be hypocritical for me to object, after what I've been doing to other monsters."

Adam nodded, then walked over to one of the sleeping bandits. The man had short fair hair and stubble of the same colour, and wore a grey shirt and brown pants. In short, he looked perfectly ordinary.

With one swing of his sword, Adam brought an end to the bandit's life. With another swing, he did the same to the second bandit.

By now, Lilith had recovered enough to walk, so she accompanied Adam and showed him the positions of the archers. There were six in total.

Six more humans that Adam killed.

Once it was finished, they dug a mass grave and dumped all ten bodies in. They then moved over to their horses, which had become skittish after the recent battle, and Lilith used her magic to calm them. Finally, they returned to the campfire and ate their dinner: it was slightly overcooked due to the lack of attention, but still edible.

As he ate, Adam cleaned the blood off his sword. Even now, the weapon shook in his hands.

_Hypocritical… that's the right way to describe it. But I can't stop this from doing what I must. Not after all the monsters I've killed, for crimes that aren't so different._

_If only there was a better way…_

* * *

_AN: Just to clarify, the Ataraca Desert is the same as the "desert region" referred to in the source material, I just gave it an official name._


	6. Chapter 6: Braving the Heat

_AN: I originally planned on having this and the next chapter together, but I split them since they cover two different events._

* * *

It took two weeks for Adam and Lilith to reach the desert. They spent the days riding and the nights training. The focus of this training was to shore up their weak points: Adam taught Lilith melee combat, while she taught him magical combat.

By the fifth day, they were in a landscape with no trees, just scraggly shrubs and short, tough grass. The water bodies were few and far between. And although the days were hot, the nights were cold, forcing them to huddle around the campfire.

On the eighth day, they came across a small village, one that was at the very edge of the Order's influence. Here they traded their horses for camels, as it was increasingly difficult to find suitable grass for horses. They also bought rations and various other supplies needed for the desert.

By the twelfth day, there were no shrubs and even the grass was limited to a few scattered clumps. Adam had to stop wearing his armour, as it was now too hot even with his enhanced physique.

Finally, they reached the point where there wasn't a blade of grass in sight. From horizon to horizon, there were only sand dunes and gravel beds. Naturally, there was no animal in sight either, not even a rat or insect. The heat was ferocious: the air hurt to breathe, and the ground burned their feet if they tried to step on it directly.

"It's a good thing we bought these clothes," Adam said. On top of his usual clothing, he was now wearing a sort of long tunic that covered his limbs and a piece of cloth that covered his head. Both were white in colour to reflect the sun's rays.

"Yeah… if we hadn't, I'd have already melted," Lilith said, fanning herself. She was wearing similar clothing. "My village… was far to the north of here… so it's a lot colder there."

"It's much hotter than I'm used to as well," Adam said. "Still, we made the decision to come here, so we should follow through with it."

"Hah… sure," Lilith said. "Anyway, according to the last village… the next one should be about two more days' travel."

"And before we reach that, there should be an oasis," Adam finished.

They continued riding. The desert heat grew even more oppressive over time. It wasn't long before Adam had to cast a spell over the two of them that would help keep them cool. It was a drain on his spirit energy reserves, making him weaker if he later needed to fight. On the other hand, neither of them would be able to fight at all if they were roasted by the sun.

About three hours after they'd entered the desert, they encountered the first native animal. As they passed by a dune, Lilith spotted a tiny lizard in the shadow of the dune. It was poking its head out of the sand, but withdrew just as Lilith pointed it out to Adam.

_So there is some life around here,_ Adam thought. _I wonder how something so frail can survive in such a harsh environment? The villagers back there said that the desert—or at least this region of it—receives rain just once a year._

They continued on, and came across more and more signs of life. There was a small bush with thorny branches and few leaves, with countless tiny insects clinging to it. In the shade of a rock was a strange sort of insect: it resembled a spider, but with a pair of pincers and a tail tipped with a stinger. Scattered among the dunes were clumps of short grass, one of which contained the nest of a small bird.

Soon, the reason for this change became apparent: the oasis. In the middle of the desert, there was nevertheless a large pool of lifegiving water. The shores of the pool were covered in grass, shrubs and even trees. Birds flew through the air, insects buzzed in the vegetation, and fish could be seen swimming in the water.

Adam and Lilith dismounted their camels. Without needing to be led, the desert animals walked over to the oasis and began grazing and drinking.

"Even after being told about it, it still seems strange to see water in the middle of all… this," Adam said.

Lilith drank all of her remaining water in one gulp. "I'm just glad we came across water. I was only a few minutes away from shrivelling up."

Adam headed for the oasis, wanting to take a drink from it directly. The sight of mere water had never before been so enticing.

Suddenly, he felt a spike of demonic energy from the sand before his feet. He leaped back and drew his sword.

Three figures burst from the sand. Adam slashed horizontally at the nearest of them, causing it to fall backwards. In the distance, he noted that the camels were running away, then pushed that thought aside to focus on the bigger problem.

_It's not unusual for monsters to hide in a place like this, where travellers would rest,_ Adam thought. _But why couldn't we sense them!? Wait—_

The monster Adam had attacked stood upright again, ignoring the large gash on their chest… a gash that did not bleed. All three monsters were humanoid in form, but the resemblance ended there: their skin was the colour of dried blood, bony spikes protruded from their flesh, and their mouths were full of sharp teeth.

"Undead!" Adam shouted. "Lilith, burn the—"

Lilith must have already started casting, because at that very instant a fireball struck one of the undead. It went down in flames, but that left two more. Adam threw himself at a second undead, using his shield to knock it back. Nearby, he heard Lilith engage the third undead.

The undead was a difficult opponent. Though it had the size and shape of a human, it was much stronger and faster. It fought in the same bestial manner as most monsters, with rapid and unpredictable strikes. And Adam had used up much of his energy protecting against the heat: he could keep up with the undead for now, but a prolonged battle would be dangerous. Sooner or later, his guard would fail, and since he wasn't wearing his armour, it would only take one good strike to bring him down.

_Undead don't need blood, or any of their organs besides their brain,_ Adam thought. _They also don't feel pain… but they're not invincible. They still need their muscles and bones to move, and they're vulnerable to fire and… to holy power._

Adam raised his shield to deflect a swipe from the undead.

_That spell may work… Before, I couldn't cast this spell in combat, but after our recent training, I might be able to manage it!_

With another shield bash, Adam knocked the undead back.

_But I can't use that, not while Lilith's around. She could get seriously hurt. In that case, I'll have to use brute force._

Adam blocked an attack, then swung the pommel of his sword at the undead's neck. He missed, but still managed to hit the shoulder, producing a loud crack.

The undead didn't flinch or scream, instead continuing to attack Adam relentlessly. But a lack of pain couldn't compensate for one of its arms now being dead weight.

Adam swung his sword at the undead's neck, aiming to decapitate it—

"Watch out!"

There was a blur of motion from the left. Straining his muscles, Adam redirected his attack so that it hit the newcomer instead. A charred corpse, head separate from the rest, fell to the ground.

_Wait—isn't that the one Lilith set on fire!? How could it still—_

There wasn't time for Adam to consider this mystery. The undead with the broken shoulder attacked, knocking Adam to the ground.

Adam quickly rolled to his side, avoiding a strike that would have split his head. He then kicked the undead to make it stagger, creating an opportunity for him to get back on his feet.

The undead charged again, only to be hit by a spell. This wasn't another fireball: it was instead a mass of ice shards and chilling fog, which froze part of the undead's torso and hindered its movement. Adam was surprised by the change in element, but not enough to keep him from finishing off his opponent.

Adam looked around and saw the third undead on the ground, frozen and with its head shattered. Then Lilith landed and folded her wings.

"Are you alright?" Lilith asked.

"I'm fine, thanks for the help," Adam replied.

"Hold on a minute, I just need to bring the camels back," Lilith said.

The succubus took off, leaving Adam behind. He pulled out a cloth and began cleaning his sword of ash and dried flesh. When he was done with that, he tested the sharpness of the edge. Fortunately, it didn't need sharpening yet.

Lilith returned, leading the camels. She wiped sweat off her face and said, "Ugh, now I'm thirsty again. Just how can the desert be this hot? It's like there's a giant furnace burning away under the sand!"

"We need to rethink our preparations for the desert… if we were in our usual condition, those undead wouldn't have been able to take us by surprise," Adam said. "Come to think of it, what sort of undead were those? They clearly weren't skeletons or ghosts, and while they were similar to zombies, they were tougher. Smarter, too… I've never heard of zombies using ambush tactics before."

"I've heard of these before, they're ghouls, a kind of zombie found in the desert. My mother," Lilith spat out the word like it was a curse, "mentioned them to me once. They're not as dumb as regular zombies. She _didn't_ mention that they're more resistant to fire, though I suppose I can't really blame her for that, since she was just passing on rumours she'd heard."

"More resistant to fire… I suppose it makes sense for monsters capable of withstanding the desert heat," Adam said.

"Yeah… though it does make me wish I'd spent more time practicing with elements other than fire," Lilith said. "I _can_ use other elements like ice, but it takes me longer to cast and I need more energy to put out the same amount of power."

Adam knew just what his companion was talking about. Nine years ago, when he was just a reckless hero-in-training, he'd thought he could become a hero from the legends, a master of every weapon and every magical discipline. His trainers very quickly disabused him of this notion. The sheer time it took to master even one skill meant that even heroes, despite their divine blessings, had to specialise in order to be effective. Some specialised in melee combat, like Adam himself, some in ranged weapons, and others in magic.

Then Adam noticed something else in Lilith's words, something that stood out to him. "From what you just said, it sounds like you…" Adam struggled to find a polite way to express himself, "don't consider undead to be fellow monsters."

"That's because most of them aren't," Lilith replied. "There are some who can think and talk, like wights and liches, but most of them are no better than animals. To give one example, just now they also attacked me, when a real monster would have at least hesitated after seeing a monster and human working together. Basically, most undead are just corpses moving through the power of demonic energy. They don't have the mind of the original person within them… or any mind at all."

Adam nodded. In the past, he'd only encountered undead twice, but both of those cases lined up with Lilith's description. The lower forms of undead made no effort to communicate with each other, nor did they have any self-preservation instinct: they simply attacked humans relentlessly. Fortunately, this simple behaviour also made them easy to outwit.

_But higher undead are a different story,_ Adam recalled. _Once, Hero Brutus told me and the other trainees about his encounter with a lich. He was the kind of man who would fight even a wurm head-on… but that encounter terrified him._

By now, the sun had reached its apex. Adam and Lilith remained at the oasis for a few hours, resting in the shade of the trees. The people at the last village had emphasised the importance of resting during the hottest part of the day. To borrow their words, those who were foolish enough to disobey this rule inevitably littered the desert with their bones.

Once the sun neared the horizon, the pair continued their journey. The plants and animals grew scarcer and scarcer, and eventually they were surrounded by barren sand once more.

The temperature plummeted when the sun set. This was a phenomenon that Adam and Lilith had already experienced, but it had never been this severe before. It was so cold that if there were any water present, Adam wouldn't be surprised to see it freeze. The two of them put on additional clothing, but even this was barely enough to keep their body heat in. The one advantage to the situation was that magical lighting was unnecessary, as there were no clouds to obscure the light of the moon and stars.

It wasn't long before it was simply too cold for them to travel. They set up camp on the lee side of a dune, where they were sheltered from the wind.

They resumed their journey once the sun rose. As in the previous day, they travelled during the morning and rested during the afternoon. They didn't encounter any more monsters during this time.

Night, however, was a different story.

Shortly after sunset, they climbed over the crest of a dune and finally spotted the village. Due to the distance, they could only make out the shapes of the buildings against the background of the starry sky. Sighing with relief, they began heading towards it. Then Lilith held out a hand and said, "Wait!"

"What is it?" Adam replied, his hand already on the hilt of his sword.

"There's demonic energy coming from over there! And from the amount—there's more than one monster there!"


	7. Chapter 7: A Taste of War

The two of them forced their camels into a run. It was extremely uncomfortable for Adam, as he wasn't used to riding anything other than a horse. It had to be even more uncomfortable for Lilith, who had less experience at riding in general. But now was hardly the time to worry about discomfort.

As they got closer to the village, Adam sensed the demonic energy as well. He also heard the screams and saw the silhouettes of humans running around, being chased by entities that were larger and had many more legs.

_Insect monsters?_ Adam thought. He quickly reviewed his knowledge. _They're tough to kill thanks to their sturdy exoskeletons and redundant anatomy. Their field of vision is wide, and many are venomous as well. Fortunately, most of them can't use magic._

Once he was close to the village, Adam dismounted. He wasn't used to fighting on camelback, nor was this particular camel trained to handle the terror of combat: something the earlier battle had made clear.

Adam was now close enough to properly see the insect monsters. They resembled that strange insect he'd seen earlier in the desert, but scaled up massively. Their pincers were large enough to crush trees, their stingers were the size of spear points, and their carapaces were so thick that the villagers' weapons shattered against them. Their upper bodies were humanoid but had a second pair of pincers at the ends of their arms, instead of hands.

One of the insect monsters loomed over a villager, ready to tear him apart, but the monster turned once it noticed the newcomers. An ice spell flew towards the insect monster's head. However, this spell was notably slower than the fireballs that Lilith usually used, allowing its target to dodge.

The insect monster charged at Adam, presumably because he was the closer of the two newcomers. Adam stepped forward, blocked two of the pincers with his shield, sliced off a third with his sword, and dodged the fourth.

While hissing in pain, the insect monster made its next move: a thrust with the stinger. Adam ducked low and sliced the stinger off… but it proved to be merely a distraction. The remaining pincers shot towards him, and he couldn't stop them all. A pincer grasped Adam's leg and wrenched him into the air.

Adam kept a tight grasp on his sword, but before he could attempt to free himself, an ice spell hit the insect monster in the head, forcing it to drop him.

Due to a rough landing, Adam wasn't able to get up immediately. He heard an unearthly shriek, then the insect monster fell to the ground next to him, Lilith's spear in their head.

Lilith withdrew her spear and helped Adam to his feet. "You alright?" she asked.

Adam experimentally moved his leg. "It hurts, but I can still fight. My reinforcement kept the pincer from doing any serious damage. Let's keep going!"

The two of them advanced through the village. Not counting the one they'd already slain, there were six of the insect monsters. It was a number that the two of them could never have defeated on their own.

But they weren't on their own. The inhabitants of the desert village—men and women, elders and even some of the older children—fought furiously against the invaders. Although their weapons were merely tools such as shovels and scythes, even these were capable of harming the insect monsters if they struck a joint or the head. And although the villagers were hardly muscular, they fought with surprising skill and coordination.

Adam and Lilith hurried towards one battle. Six villagers were surrounding one insect monster. They fought in pairs: one pair moved in, swinging their weapons and dodging attacks, then retreated and were replaced by another pair.

_Amazing… by keeping up constant pressure, they can keep their opponent from focusing on any one of them,_ Adam thought. _For amateurs, they're incredibly good. But that doesn't mean they can't use our help!_

As if on cue, one of the villagers was sent flying through the air by a blow. Adam jumped and caught him, preventing him from hitting a building. Lilith then sent an ice spell through a gap in the villagers' formation, freezing the insect monster's upper body.

The remaining five villagers had looks of surprise on their faces. Fortunately, their hesitation lasted for less than a second, then they closed on the insect monster and delivered the finishing blows.

"Are you alright?" Adam asked the villager in his arms.

The villager answered in an unfamiliar language while pointing at his left arm, which was bent at a painful angle. Judging from the context, he'd taken the insect monster's attack on that arm, but was otherwise unharmed.

Adam left the villager with his friends to receive medical care, then moved on to the next battle.

While running alongside Adam, Lilith said, "That last spell… took all of my remaining mana. I can't cast anything else tonight."

"That's fine, just stay in the rear!"

The two of them rushed through the village, helping the villagers fight off the remaining insect monsters.

The third was defeated after Adam severed three of its legs. No longer able to support their great weight, the insect monster collapsed and was cut to pieces.

The fourth was defeated after Lilith threw her spear at them like a javelin. Although they were able to dodge the spear, the insect monster was still thrown off-balance, allowing Adam to decapitate them.

The remaining three were defeated purely by the villagers' effort. Of special note was the seventh and final one: this insect monster tried to flee after realising they were the last of their kind remaining. However, they stumbled into a net trap on the outskirts on the village, one presumably set up by the villagers to defend against monster invasions. The insect monster quickly tore their way free, but was still slowed down enough for the villagers to catch up and exact their vengeance.

After all of the invaders were killed, the villagers cheered.

Adam checked his surroundings to confirm that there was nothing else to fight, then quickly wiped the blood off his sword and inspected the edge.

_It's worn down… no wonder, after being used on so many hard targets. I'll need to sharpen it when I get the chance… come to think of it, I should consider replacing it with a new one eventually. I've been using this one ever since I finished my training._

The villagers were busy with activity. Some dragged the corpses of the insect monsters away, others tended to the human casualties, and the rest gathered around the two visitors to their village. Adam couldn't understand their words, though it was clear from their body language that they were grateful. Eventually, a woman who looked to be in her forties stepped forward.

"That armour and sword, you're one of the heroes from the east, aren't you?" said the villager, in the same language used by Adam and most of the human nations. "Thank you for helping us, both of you."

"Just doing our jobs," Adam replied. "Would you like help healing the wounded?"

"Definitely."

The villager agreed and led Adam and Lilith through the village. As they passed between the rows of sandstone buildings, she explained that was one of the few who had travelled outside the village, which was why she knew the common tongue. She also explained the circumstances behind the attack: the insect monsters—or "girtablilu" as she called them—had snuck into the village, only to be noticed by one of the night guards. That guard had raised the alarm, though he had not been fortunate enough to survive.

In demonstration of this fact, they passed by an open space in which three bodies were laid on the ground and covered in cloth. Adam mentally recited a prayer to the Chief Goddess to safeguard the souls of the fallen. Beside him, he noticed Lilith lowering her head.

_She obviously wouldn't follow any human gods,_ Adam thought. _But I've never heard her talk about any gods worshipped by monsters… It must be incredibly lonely, to be estranged from your own kind yet also have no higher power to believe in._

Finally, they arrived at a house in which more than a dozen wounded people lay in various states. Several more people tended to them: judging from their levels of skill, only one was an actual healer, with the remainder being volunteers. Adam was introduced to the group and immediately pressed into service by the healer.

The top priority patient was a young woman with absolutely grievous injuries: her left arm had been crushed by pincers, while her abdomen had been torn open to the point that the intestines were hanging out. Adam could only stop the worst of the bleeding, then leave the young woman to the healer and hope that she could handle the rest.

The remaining patients were comparatively easy: mainly small cuts and scrapes, though one had a broken bone, the young man that Adam had saved earlier. Adam could heal these on his own. He also healed the injury to his own leg.

Unfortunately, in the end the first patient could not be saved. Her wounds were just far too severe, and she could only be given a quick death. For this situation, the healer possessed a herb that gave off a faint sweet smell. When she crushed some of the herb and held it to the young woman's face, her breathing slowed and soon stopped. Then two of the volunteers carried her body outside. Throughout this process, Adam couldn't do anything other than clench his fists.

Once the ordeal was over, Adam stepped outside and reunited with Lilith. Their guide led them to a different house and told them they could rest here. Additionally, another villager arrived bringing Adam and Lilith's camels, which were tied to a post in front of the house.

The beds in this house were simple constructions of stone with no pillows or mattresses. Still, Adam and Lilith dropped their belongings and collapsed onto the beds.

"That was the longest night of my life," Lilith said. "By the way, how's your leg?"

"Fine, I also took care of it while I was in there," Adam replied. "I'm guessing this is the first time you've had to fight as part of a large group?"

"Yeah… succubi in general avoid fights, and other monsters would never have allied with me," Lilith said. "It reminds me of when we tricked those lamias and harpies into fighting each other… all the chaos, where it seemed like anyone could die at any moment."

Adam nodded. "I've fought in a large group just once before. It was… back when I was still with my human friends. We came to a village that had been raided by giant ants for several nights. Since the enemy was too numerous, we got it into our heads that we could train the villagers to help us fight. It was a foolish idea—you can't teach someone to be a soldier in a few hours—and the only reason it worked at all was Hogan."

"Hogan?" Lilith said. "If I remember right, he was the oldest of your group?"

"He was… and definitely the smartest of us as well," Adam said. "You see, he used to be a scholar from Welsple, and he only took up arms after a monster attack that damaged his academy and killed several of his students. Anyway, the point is that he knew how to teach people. Most importantly, he knew how to focus on only the essential things. He taught the villagers how to hold a spear and thrust it at a narrow spot, and to keep going even in the face of attacking monsters. Because of that, when the giant ants arrived again that night, the villagers were able to surround the tunnels they made and stab any ant that emerged, forcing the ants to retreat. The next morning, we followed the giant ants' traces to their nest and smoked them out. That was definitely the biggest battle I've ever been in, with dozens of ants… if it weren't for the villagers, we would never have won. But we did, and we killed every last one of them."

Lilith didn't reply to these words.

"The villagers here are a lot more skilled… must be a necessity when they live in such a harsh—Oh, do you want to sleep now, Lilith?" Adam said. "Sorry for—"

"No, it's fine, I'm still wide awake," Lilith said quickly. "It's just—when I hear these stories of yours, I keep wondering what it would be like if—if it weren't just the two of us."

Now it was Adam's turn to be silent, as he tried to think of a reply.

"I know it's a stupid idea," Lilith continued. "The chances of finding another human who can work with monsters, or a monster who doesn't see humans as food, are non-existent."

"Come on, it's not that bad…"

"Really? In that case, tell me: where could we _possibly_ find…"

Until they fell asleep, Adam spent the time trying to cheer Lilith up.

-ooo-

The next morning, Adam and Lilith explored the desert village. The chaos of the previous night had prevented them from properly seeing any of it then.

The village was relatively small, with a population of just under three hundred, crowded into less than fifty buildings. It was built around another oasis, and the villagers drew their water from this in addition to setting out pots to catch the occasional rain.

Then there was the culture. The local clothing was long and covered the body, similar to what Adam and Lilith had bought, as this was a necessity in the desert conditions. The cuisine was also a product of the environment: Adam was especially shocked to see the strange insect, the one that girtablilu were similar to, among the foods on offer. It was apparently called a "scorpion" and, while initially reluctant to try it, Adam discovered that it tasted delicious.

But despite all of these differences, they were the same as the people Adam was familiar with: they farmed and hunted for food, wove and repaired clothing, cleaned their houses and otherwise did their best to survive.

Throughout their exploration, Adam and Lilith were the subjects of curiosity and gratitude. Most of the local villagers didn't know their language, but now Lilith was able to solve that problem with her translation spell. They were hit with a non-stop barrage of questions about the world outside the desert, mixed with thanks for their assistance in last night's battle.

"Hey, is it true that the sea has so much water in it that you can't even see the bottom?"

"I—I've heard the same thing, but I haven't actually seen the sea myself, so I can't say for certain," Adam replied.

"Hey, that magic you used back then was incredible!"

"Thank you!" Lilith replied.

"Can you teach me how to do it?"

"Um, that might be a bit difficult, since I—I—" Lilith said, looking around in a fluster.

"Sorry, but it takes a long time to learn such magic," Adam interjected. "Several years at the very least."

The conversation continued in this vein for quite some time. While she needed help on several occasions, Lilith nevertheless managed to keep talking for the whole time, a major improvement compared to before. The two of them also learned about the other humans in the desert: there were many villages like this one, none of them much larger in size, and the harsh environment meant that they rarely traded or even communicated with each other. Each of the villages was forced to be self-sufficient out of necessity. The isolation was similar to the monster society that Lilith came from, albeit for different reasons.

Eventually, one of the villagers said, "Hey, do you think they could make it to the Pyramid?"

"That's just a myth!"

"There's no way something that convenient exists!"

Adam frowned in confusion. "What is this 'Pyramid' you're talking about?" He asked. "I only know of it as a shape…"

These words caused the villagers to argue over whether the Pyramid was reality or merely myth. Eventually, one of the older villagers stepped forward. "Quiet," he said. "I will try to explain this matter to our visitors."

The other villagers ceased their argument immediately.

"Alright. Now, where to begin…" the elderly villager said, his eyes growing distant with recollection. "First, the Pyramid is a great structure that supposedly exists to the west of here. It's said to resemble a mountain carved by human hands. Some claim that there is more than one of them. As to its significance… This is a story that I heard when I was still a child, and it was old even then. I was told that this desert was once a great green land where water flowed freely and there was never any shortage of food, like the lands to the east. I was told that there was a great kingdom here, and the Pyramid is the only relic of that era."

"But what could have destroyed that kingdom, and made all this land into what it is now?" Lilith asked. "Monsters?"

"Possibly, though there are many other explanations, such as the people of that kingdom losing the gods' favour," the elderly villager replied. "In any case, it's rumoured that great power sleeps within the ruins of the Pyramid. Power that could be used to purify the desert of monsters and return it to the green land it once was…"

Adam and Lilith looked at each other sceptically.

"Yes, it seems too good to be true," the elderly villager continued. "And many have gone into the desert chasing after such power, but none have ever returned. That is why many of us believe it is just a myth, passed down through the generations to keep our people from falling into despair. I'm sure that you have similar stories where you come from."

"It's can't be just a myth!" shouted another villager. "Nobody would pass down that story if there wasn't some truth to it!"

"You're a fool, there's no way something that convenient would exist!"

"What did you just call me!?"

The argument started out again. Adam was about to intervene, but the elderly villager waved him off, saying that such arguments were a common way for his people to vent their frustrations.

As a result, Adam and Lilith returned to the house that had been given to them. Both of them started packing up their belongings.

"Chances are that it's just a myth," Adam said. "Back in Merith, there were countless stories like it: heroes from past ages still being alive, to pass down their power to the worthy. But—"

"But it's the only hope we've got of making a _lasting_ impact," Lilith said. "We could go around to the other villages, kill all the monsters attacking them, and once we leave, more monsters will colonise the region."

"My teachers would call me foolish for trying something like this," Adam said. "They always told me to remember that I'm not invincible, even if I'm a hero. And there's the many others who've tried to find this Pyramid and failed."

"To be honest, I can see their point," Lilith said. "But we have something that none of the others had."

"We're a human and a monster working together," Adam finished, as he loaded the last of his armour into the camel's saddlebags.

"Though if you don't mind me asking, why are you going along with this so quickly?" Lilith asked. "I was wondering if I would have to persuade you."

"It's true, I've definitely changed," Adam said, smiling. "It's not just that I'm now fine with working with you. I'm willing to take more risks now. I think… I think it's because I'm sick of seeing people dying. I now believe that things shouldn't be this way, that people shouldn't have to die like this."

These words would have been unthinkable to the Adam of a mere six months ago. If that Adam had heard someone else saying such words, he would have suspected them of heresy for questioning the Chief God's designs. But after a month of working alongside a monster and accomplishing nothing but good…

They left the house and announced their intentions to the villagers. As expected, there was a mixed reaction. Some of the villagers were hopeful of the pair's success, asking them to return with tales of what they discovered. Some were worried for their safety, so they warned them of the desert's dangers and suggested ways to improve their chances. And some, after hearing the announcement, simply shook their heads.

Adam and Lilith left the village and rode off into the desert. They headed for the west, where most of the stories agreed the Pyramid was.

For the first few minutes, they were on flat sand and could still see the village. But eventually they had to cross a dune, and there were no more signs of civilisation. Just more scorching sun and barren sand.

* * *

_AN: I have a question for readers: what do you think of my pacing? Some other authors would have made the girtablilu battle and the village exploration separate chapters. Do you think I'm going too fast? Alternatively, do you think I'm going too slow?_


	8. Chapter 8: Serendipity

Travelling through the desert was somewhat easier than before. Adam had improved his spell to protect against heat, based on knowledge gained from talking to the desert villagers. The current version of the spell used less energy yet reflected a greater proportion of the sunlight striking the pair and their camels. As a result, they could travel in greater comfort while using up less of Adam's spirit energy: important advantages when they could be ambushed by monsters at any time.

However, they still couldn't afford to relax. There was little information on the oases to the west of the village, and—for this reason—no other villages existed in this area. Water was therefore a major concern. The pair and their camels needed less water thanks to Adam's magic, but they still required enough that it would be infeasible to carry all the water for their journey.

For the first few days, they encountered desert vegetation and therefore had access to water. The camels could eat the tough, thorny plants with ease, and did not need additional water to drink. Adam and Lilith broke off the stems and leaves of certain plants and drank the sap; they only dared to do this because the desert villagers had warned them which plants were safe and which were poisonous.

On the third day, there was a sand storm. The approaching yellow-brown clouds were a foreboding yet also oddly beautiful sight. Adam, Lilith, and their camels huddled in the shelter of a dune to wait for the storm to pass. The human and succubus also covered their faces with long cloths. Despite this protective measure, their faces were covered with sand by the time the storm passed. They had to use some of their water to wash the sand off. The camels, on the other hand, were entirely unperturbed by the storm.

But by the fifth day, they were in the depths of the desert, where there were again no plants or animals in sight. At this point, they needed to resort to magic.

On the evening of the fifth day, Lilith began looking for water. She approached a small valley and placed her hands on the sand. She remained in this position for about thirty seconds, then shook her head and stood up. She repeated this process eight times, taking slightly less time with each repetition.

When Lilith examined the ninth valley, she announced, "Alright, it should be close enough here".

Lilith close her eyes, and Adam could feel her focusing her demonic energy. Eventually, a dark patch formed in the sand. The patch expanded until it was roughly one pace in diameter. Beads of water appeared, rapidly increased in size and number, and eventually formed a puddle of water.

"Finally!" Lilith exclaimed. She was trembling so much that she looked like she would fall into the puddle at any moment.

"Why don't you go first?" Adam said. "You're the one who did all the work."

Lilith knelt down, filled her waterskin and gulped down all the contents, then filled her waterskin again. Sighing with relief, she said, "In the last few minutes… I just used more water magic… than in my whole life…"

This was another way of acquiring water in the desert. There was plenty of water underground, shielded by the sand from the harsh sunlight. The usual way to extract it was to dig a hole and wait for it to fill, but this was tiring work and it could take several hours for enough water to fill the hole. Using water magic to extract the water was better, provided that one had the skill.

Adam filled his own waterskin, then stepped aside to allow the camels to drink the remaining water. While drinking, he looked up at the night sky: it was a beautiful sight, with no clouds to obscure the moon and stars.

-ooo-

From that point on, Adam and Lilith had more or less grown accustomed to the rigours of the desert. They would never find it comfortable, but they at least no longer had to worry about simply surviving to the next day. Of course, it wasn't as if they could survive here indefinitely.

"We have enough rations for ten more days, at most," Adam said. "I hope we find the Pyramid soon."

"According to one of the stories, it should be around here somewhere," Lilith said. "We might find it today."

"Perhaps… but then, another story said that it was months away from the nearest village," Adam said. "I doubt that even a desert monster could travel that far. And each of these stories is as plausible as the rest."

"We'll just have to hope that the Pyramid isn't too far," Lilith said. After a pause, she continued, "You know, if we _don't_ manage to find it, our camels could probably still survive, if they can make it back to where there's greenery. They'd be the only evidence left of another failed attempt to find the Pyramid."

Adam laughed. Dark humour like this was common in his former group: it was one of the few ways to remain cheerful in a job where you could die any day.

"Maybe our skeletons would still be in the saddles… that would frighten anyone that saw—"

Lilith stopped and reached for her spear. At the same time, Adam drew his sword. But before he could ask the direction or numbers of the attackers, the camels began running.

"What's—happening!?" Adam asked, desperately trying to hold on to his camel. He could only use one hand to do so, since the camel's movements prevented him from resheathing his sword.

"It's—It's huge, there's no way we can fight it!" Lilith shouted back. "We have to run!"

The ground began to shake. Since they were made of soft sand, the surrounding dunes collapsed, creating more hazards to deal with. The camels twisted and turned to avoid the falling sand, driven by instinct rather than any command from their riders.

Adam sensed a demonic energy source… and immediately realised why Lilith and the camels were so alarmed. If the monsters he'd faced before were sparks, this was a raging wildfire. An entire platoon of veteran heroes wouldn't stand a chance against it.

Finally, a gargantuan monster emerged from the sand. They were elongated like a serpent, but as thick as a small house and so long that, even with most of their body still beneath the surface, they could have wrapped around an entire ship and crushed it. The surface of their body was covered in overlapping plates, which gleamed like metal but were muddy brown in colour. The head of the monster bore three pairs of red eyes and a circular mouth filled with teeth.

_A Sandworm,_ Adam thought, remembering the stories he'd heard in the desert village. _It has to be, there's no other monster this big!_

The Sandworm let out an ear-splitting shriek, then continued their pursuit by slithering over the surface. They were easily fast enough to keep up with the camels… and from the way the camels were panting, Adam knew that they wouldn't be able to run for much longer.

However, before Adam's camel reached its limit, Adam was thrown off its back by its wild movements. He braced himself for impact, only to be caught in mid-air by a strong pair of arms. It was Lilith, who'd jumped off her own camel to catch him.

"Hold on!" Lilith shouted.

Lilith veered to the left. The Sandworm turned to follow them, and their rapid change in direction kicked up a wave of sand, which swallowed up the two camels.

_Dammit, that was most of our supplies, including my armour! At least I still have my sword!_

The Sandworm let out another roar. Despite their inhuman form, Adam could almost feel a sense of anger from them. However, the Sandworm did not break off their pursuit.

Lilith slowly ascended while carrying Adam. However, at this rate, and considering the Sandworm's size and speed, it would take her several minutes to climb out of the Sandworm's potential attack range.

"Let go of me!" Adam shouted. "You can escape once I'm not weighing you down!"

"Don't be stupid, there's no way I'm leaving you behind!" Lilith retorted.

Adam clenched his teeth in frustration. He could drop his sword, but that would make no difference since the sword was only a small proportion of their combined weight.

He looked down again. The Sandworm burst through a dune without slowing down at all.

_If I… attack her, I could force her to let me go. That's… it's the only way to make sure she survives—_

_I know… that this is a horrible thing to do. If I were on the receiving end, I'd absolutely hate her for doing such a thing. But…_

_I don't want her to die._

Adam opened his mouth, ready to say some last words. He was interrupted by an abrupt turn to the right. He looked around and realised that Lilith had turned to avoid a particularly large dune.

Due to having a larger body, the Sandworm was less agile and couldn't avoid colliding with the dune.

Suddenly, there was a resounding crash and a spike of magical energy, both so intense that they caused Adam physical pain. Judging from her sudden loss of altitude, Lilith had also been affected. More surprisingly, there was a massive roar of pain that could only have come from the Sandworm.

The Sandworm was now thrashing about, displacing huge amounts of sand. But even through the clouds of sand, Adam could make out the blue glow of a magical barrier, one that dwarfed even the enormous monster.

For a few moments, there was the sound of an immense mass boring through sand. After the sound subsided, the sand cleared enough to reveal that the Sandworm had gone, the barrier was no longer present… and the dune was actually an enormous stone building.

Lilith landed next to the building and let go of Adam. While shielding their eyes from the sand still suspended in the air, the two of them looked up at the building.

Fitting its name, it was an enormous square pyramid. It was larger than any building Adam had ever seen: only a great castle, like the one in Lescatie, could possibly rival it in size. Even the stone blocks it consisted of were enormous, with each one being almost as tall as a man.

"So _that's_ why no one has ever found the Pyramid… it's been buried all this time," Adam said, awed at the sight. "Well, that and monsters like the Sandworm."

"And these traces of mana…" Lilith said. "I recognise them. It's a bit different to what I remember, but this kind of spell creates a barrier in response to an approaching enemy. Back in… back in my village, this kind of spell was used for security. It's pretty complicated magic, so I was never able to learn it myself… But I've never heard of a barrier this big, or this _tough_."

"Now I definitely believe those stories about a lost great kingdom," Adam said. "Even for the kingdoms of today, it would be a massive undertaking to build something like this. The barrier alone would take dozens of skilled mages…"

The two of them walked around the Pyramid. While doing so, Adam counted his steps to measure the size of the building. To his surprise, the Pyramid had remarkably precise dimensions, despite its seemingly crude construction. Each of the four sides was one hundred and eighty paces long, give or take half a pace.

They arrived at the main entrance. This was an opening ten blocks above ground level, and currently blocked by sand.

"I think I know the answer already, but I just want to make sure," Lilith said. "Are you willing to go inside? Judging from that barrier, this Pyramid definitely has other defences. The two of us could easily get killed in there. And now that we've found it, we could just go back and tell others about it, so a better-prepared group could come to explore it."

"If I wasn't willing, I wouldn't have come here in the first place," Adam replied firmly. "'A hero is willing to brave any danger'… it's something from a children's tale, but then, so are ancient ruins from lost civilisations."

"And if I wasn't willing to take risks like this, I would never have left my village," Lilith said. She closed her eyes and exhaled. "Alright, then… let's go."

They climbed up to the entrance and cleared some of the sand away. This was hot and tiring work, especially since they'd lost most of their supplies and needed to ration what little water they had left. They didn't clear all of the sand—the entrance was wide and tall enough to admit a two-horse wagon—just enough to make a gap that they could crawl through.

Once they were finished, they finally entered the Pyramid.


	9. Chapter 9: Pyramid

_AN: I only realised while writing this chapter that I capitalised "sandworm" in the previous chapter. Capitalising race names is generally incorrect, and I've been trying to avoid this so far. I'll have it uncapitalised from now on._

_Also, when reading this chapter, bear in mind that I am not an expert on ancient Egypt, and made no particular attempts to be accurate here._

* * *

Upon entering the Pyramid, Lilith was initially tense, as she was expecting a trap of some sort. Fire erupting from the walls, boulders falling from the ceiling, the floor giving way to a pit of spikes… the sorts of traps in the stories she'd heard as a child. But nothing happened.

"That barrier from before didn't trigger when we came in…" Lilith said. "It must be designed to trigger when something big approaches the Pyramid… maybe also if it's attacked by powerful spells. It must let smaller things, like us, through… that would also explain how the Pyramid got buried over time."

"But that doesn't mean there's nothing deeper inside," Adam said.

Lilith nodded and conjured up a magical light, illuminating their surroundings.

They were in a long corridor, the end of which was shrouded in darkness. The walls were lined with sockets, each of which held a small white crystal. Large cracks lined the walls and ceiling, and pieces of rubble dotted the floor: unsurprising for a structure so old.

The crystals were what drew Lilith's attention. Crystals could store and discharge large amounts of energy, making them useful components in spells… including magical traps. Just by looking at the crystals, Lilith could picture them shooting out bolts of lightning to vaporise the two of them. Alternatively, the crystals could just be simple light sources. That was actually the more likely possibility.

_But we can't afford to take any risks,_ Lilith thought. _Not when there's just two of us, we're missing most of our supplies and we know almost nothing about this place._

Lilith pointed out the crystals to Adam, who agreed that they might be dangerous. After some discussion, they decided to test them. They first crawled back out through the gap in the sand, which would hopefully put them outside the range of any trap. Then, Lilith aimed carefully and shot a weak fire spell through the gap.

There were no falling boulders or spike pits. Instead, when the spell struck a crystal, it caused that and all of the other crystals to light up.

"Well, that was…" Lilith began.

"Anticlimactic?" Adam finished. "Perhaps, but it's better for us if there aren't any more traps."

The two of them crawled back through the gap. Lilith dismissed her light spell, since there was no more need for it.

"That's true… if I had to spend one more second out there, I would melt," Lilith said, while brushing the sand off.

"Speaking of which… how are we going to make it back to civilisation?" Adam asked. "We've lost our mounts and the supplies they were carrying. We can draw water from the sand, but that still leaves the problem of food."

Lilith stopped in her tracks. "Ugh, I forgot about that… must be the shock from actually finding what we were after."

"It's fine, I was also shocked by… all this," Adam said. "Regardless, we can't give up hope. This Pyramid is a remnant of a great civilisation, and—judging from the fact that these crystals are still here—it hasn't been looted even once. Who knows what treasures we might find inside?"

With those words, they decided to proceed further inside.

The corridor soon widened into a large hall, one tall and wide enough for three ogres to walk through, shoulder-to-shoulder, with room to spare. Every surface of the hall was covered in art. The walls bore carvings of what seemed to be the ancient kingdom that had built the Pyramid. The ceiling was painted to resemble the sky in various states, ranging from sunny and clear to overcast and stormy. Even the floor wasn't exempt, being composed of coloured stones that were arranged in abstract patterns: red lines giving way to green circles and blue spirals.

Lilith and Adam were struck dumb from the sight. It seemed that with each step they took, they would encounter yet another reminder of the grandeur that had once existed in this land.

They walked forward slowly, paying close attention to the art on the walls.

For most of the hall, the walls displayed scenes of a mighty and prosperous kingdom. Instead of barren sand and rock, there were grassy plains, forests, rivers and lakes. Thousands upon thousands of human figures represented the inhabitants of this kingdom. These were each barely taller than a finger, yet they were so detailed that it was possible to discern their professions; a testament to the skill of the artists. Numerous buildings were also on display: most were small huts and shops, which looked remarkably similar to those of the modern age, but there were also triangles of stone blocks that utterly dwarfed the other buildings.

"So even that story is true: there's more than just one Pyramid," Lilith said. "Unless all these are meant to be carvings of the same Pyramid, but I doubt that. They all look slightly different."

"It makes sense, if the ancient kingdom included all of what is now desert," Adam said. "These Pyramids, judging from their size and defences, are equivalent to castles. There's at least ten Pyramids on the walls here. A kingdom this large would be able to afford that number, and would _need_ that many to defend all of its territory."

"Though if there are multiple Pyramids, then it's even stranger that none of them have been found until now," Lilith said, touching one of the Pyramid carvings. "They can't _all_ have been buried in sand."

"It's possible that others have found them, but they succumbed to the desert or the monsters," Adam pointed out. "After all… _we_ nearly died, and only survived because we were lucky enough to stumble across a Pyramid."

These words caused Lilith to recall their recent encounter. She was well aware that there were many monsters in this world who were stronger than her—this was a lesson that succubi were extremely diligent at passing down to their children. But when she saw that enormous tooth-filled mouth rushing towards her, about to devour her and Adam in a single gulp…

Lilith looked down at the spear in her hand. It was a simple weapon, with a design that had barely changed after countless centuries of war. It was still lethal enough to kill a monster if it pierced a vital point. But against a sandworm, it was nothing more than a toothpick. And even sandworms weren't the apex of monsters: if the stories about baphomets were true, then any of them could easily crush a sandworm with their bare hands.

_No… now's not the time for this. _

Lilith lifted her head and continued walking.

In the last stretch of the hall, the art changed. It was much rougher and, in some places, outright unfinished. Now, monsters were present in the carvings as well. These included types suited to the desert, like ghouls and girtablilus, and types that Lilith was more familiar with, like lamias and harpies. There were scenes of humans being captured and devoured, fields burning, buildings being razed.

Lilith and Adam looked at each other. They didn't say anything, as no words were needed at this point. They did, however, tighten their grip on their weapons.

Finally, they reached the end of the hall. This contained three doorways, one in front and one each to the left and right. The door in front was conspicuously larger than the other two.

The moment they approached the doors, the door to the left opened slightly, revealing an eye.

_It can't be—not after this place has been buried for so long—_

The door opened and a human girl emerged. She had the same dark skin and black hair as the other inhabitants of the desert, but was dressed in a simple tattered dress. She was also injured: she moved with a limp and her right leg was stained with dried blood. Her face was filled with a mix of surprise, confusion and curiosity.

Lilith felt her breath catch in her throat. She wanted to run up to the girl and tend to her wound, to bring her out of this ruin and to civilisation. But the rational part of her realised that the girl gave off no spirit energy, or even demonic energy… she was just an illusion.

"So _this_ is the approach they took with the traps," Adam said. He was holding his sword high, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Based on those carvings back there, this must be meant to bait monsters," Lilith said. "Most monsters would attack it straight away and get caught in the trap."

The two of them backed away down the hall. The illusion made no attempt to follow them. Lilith cast a fire spell at the illusion, causing it to disappear and a torrent of flame to shoot out from the door. The flame lasted several seconds, after which the door slammed shut.

After waiting for ten seconds to be certain there were no more traps, Lilith and Adam walked forward nervously. The air around the doors was stiflingly hot, and the door and wall on the right were glowing red in several places.

_That's the last time I'm disappointed at a lack of traps,_ Lilith thought.

They then tested the other two doors. Once it cooled down, Adam used his sword to slowly push open the door on the right.

Behind this door was a large storage room filled with all sorts of items, including clothing, jewellery, tools and—most importantly for the current situation—weapons and armour. The two of them explored the room while continuing to watch out for traps.

Adam found a set of armour made from a metal resembling bronze. It didn't have any enchantments, but it looked well-crafted even to Lilith's inexperienced eye.

"It doesn't fit perfectly, but it's the closest to my body shape out of all the armour here," Adam said. "And it's better to be uncomfortable than dead."

There was also food and drink in this room, stored in ceramic vessels of various shapes and sizes. Of course, all of it was no longer fit for consumption, so their supply issue remained unsolved.

They returned to the hall and stood before the one door remaining. Judging from its size, it clearly led to something important—and therefore something that would have even stronger defences. But there was no turning back now.

They opened the door to find a staircase, extending up for a height of several storeys.

Still vigilant, they climbed the staircase. They encountered several more rooms along the way, which contained art and items similar to before. However, they didn't spend more than a minute in any of these. Time was limited when they had little food or water, and in any case they were curious about what lay at the top of the stairs.

Finally, they arrived at a set of double doors. These were decorated to a far greater extent than anything else in the Pyramid, being covered in carvings of animals, humans, and humanoid figures with the heads of animals. The last of these were seemingly not monsters: they didn't resemble the previous carvings of monsters and weren't shown as aggressive towards the humans. All of the carvings were coated with gold and small gemstones were used for the eyes.

After checking the doors for traps, Lilith and Adam each placed their hands on a door and pushed them open.

Beyond the doors was a large and square-shaped room, filled with even more items than any of the previous rooms. There were golden cups, statues, masks, ceremonial weapons. There were gemstones of all kinds, the smaller stones decorating other objects while the larger stones were arranged in piles. A particularly large stone was embedded in the ceiling, where it glowed like a miniature sun. An entire chariot occupied one corner. And in the centre of the room was a rectangular block of stone similar to a bed, though it was too tall to comfortably sleep on. The upper surface of this block was carved into the shape of a reclining human figure. All in all, it was a display of wealth greater than any that the succubus or hero had ever seen before.

Lilith and Adam entered the room and walked around slowly. With every step, more treasures came into sight.

_And there's supposed to be _more_ of these Pyramids?_ Lilith thought. _Did the people of the ancient kingdom somehow get their hands on all the gold and jewels in the world?_

Lilith bent down and carefully touched one of the larger gemstones. As soon as her finger made contact, she sensed a massive quantity of energy within the stone, a quantity several times larger than what she could store in her own body. But she didn't dare try to use this energy—at least not immediately—as she had no idea what the original purpose of the stone was.

Eventually, the two of them approached the stone block in the centre of the room. It seemed to give off a presence greater than anything else in the room, despite its relative lack of decoration.

"What is this?" Lilith wondered. "My first thought was that it's a pedestal of some kind, but the carving would make it hard to put anything on it." She leaned down and examined the side of the block. "There's a groove here… and it runs all the way around the edge… could it be some kind of treasure chest?"

Adam frowned. Looking at the stone block, he said, "Now that I've had a closer look, I recognise this… the appearance is slightly different, but this is almost certainly a coffin."

"A coffin? Aren't those usually buried in the ground?" Lilith asked.

"Usually, but sometimes they're left in special buildings that are for storing the dead," Adam explained. "But I've never seen or heard of one this… elaborate."

"But this is the only coffin in the Pyramid," Lilith said, looking around and confirming that there weren't any other doors leading out of the room. "Would any kingdom build something so big, fill it with countless treasures, and protect it with barriers and traps, just so that _one person_ has a good place to—to be dead?"

"It sounds strange to me as well… but we don't know much about what these people were like," Adam pointed out. "All we have are those carvings on the walls, and old stories. If we were scholars and had a few years to examine this information, we might gain a proper understanding of what the ancient kingdom was like. But we don't have that, so for all we know, they were the sort of people who _would_ do such things."

Lilith looked at the coffin, at the figure carved into the surface. It was extremely lifelike, with even the finest details of the face painstakingly reproduced.

For a moment, Lilith was overcome by curiosity, and she reached out to touch the coffin. She immediately pulled her hand back, but a moment of incaution was all it took.

The coffin emitted a pulse of spirit energy, orders of magnitude more powerful than anything that Lilith had ever felt before.

"I-I'm sorry, that was—" Lilith began.

"Never mind that, we have to move!" Adam shouted back.

Lilith whirled around and saw, to her surprise, that the doors to the room were still open. It seemed that this was not another trap… but it would still be foolish to take risks.

The two of them ran out of the room and pressed themselves against the walls on either side of the entrance. While keeping their weapons in hand, they peered into the room.

The upper surface of the coffin, the lid, disintegrated into sand. The sand flowed sideways and disappeared into thin gaps in the floor. Finally, a figure rose out of the coffin.

Lilith gathered demonic energy within her left hand, but she had no idea what spell she should cast. Considering its origin, the figure was likely an undead and hence vulnerable to fire. On the other hand, Lilith had already encountered undead _without_ this vulnerability, and the sheer power she could feel suggested that nothing she could do would hurt it. She eventually allowed the energy to disperse, deciding that the best option—or rather, the least terrible option—was to avoid seeming like a threat.

The figure rose to a sitting position. It was thin, almost emaciated, and dirty bandages covered its entire body. Its face was covered by an elaborate mask: this was made of gold and inlaid with various gemstones, and included a headdress resembling the folded wings of a bird.

For a few seconds, the undead—for it could not be anything else—remained in a sitting position. Lilith almost allowed herself to believe that it was not hostile.

Then Lilith was lifted into the air by an invisible hand. Out of the corner of her eye, Lilith saw that Adam was in a similar position. They both struggled, and Lilith also tried every trick she knew to negate the spell, but they might as well have tried to break free of a dragon's grasp.

Still floating in the air, the two of them were drawn back into the room. The undead was raising a single hand, which glowed with white light.

A booming, masculine voice came from the undead. Though the words were of a long-dead language, the voice held a power of its own, resounding throughout the room and immediately crushing Lilith's hopes of escape.

The undead paused momentarily. Then he lifted himself out of the coffin and stepped down to the ground. He removed his mask and set it aside, then peeled off the bandages from his face, layer by layer. Beneath was a visage that could be described as a skull wrapped in dried skin. The eyes, however, remained in their sockets, and these glared at the two intruders with an unmistakeable anger.

The undead raised his hand again, this time glowing a deep blue. Lilith clenched her teeth, expecting the worst. A wave of magic washed over her and Adam, but neither of them was harmed.

_Wait… this feeling… it's not exactly the same, but it's like my own—_

"I am Thutmose, fifth of his name, pharaoh of Thoth's domain," said the undead. "Now… how was a _monster _able to enter my Pyramid?"


	10. Chapter 10: Ancient Secrets

_AN: This chapter is a relatively long one._

_I forgot to mention it in the last chapter, but Lilith changed back into her human form for entering the Pyramid. There's not much use for flight indoors, plus the wings and tail might be a hindrance in confined spaces._

_I also made a mistake in Chapter 2 by having Lilith mention ghouls in her backstory, despite Chapter 6 being her first encounter with them. I've fixed that here._

* * *

Lilith felt her breath catch in her throat. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea for her to continue exploring the Pyramid _after_ seeing that its builders had been overrun by monsters. Though to be fair, it was also implausible for the Pyramid to still be inhabited—at least by living beings.

_Ever since I left home, nobody had managed to see through my human disguise… until now,_ Lilith thought. _I must have gotten overconfident…_

_But knowing that won't help me get out of this mess!_

The undead—Thutmose—bent down briefly to pick up a long staff from among the treasures. The staff was made of gold and covered in bands of lapis lazuli, and strongly curved at one end.

"Well?" Thutmose demanded. "Answer me!"

Lilith flinched, as if she'd been struck by a physical force. This ancient undead was only the size of a human or succubus, yet he was even more intimidating than the sandworm from before.

Thutmose raised his staff, and Lilith suddenly felt a burning sensation throughout her body, a sensation that was most intense in her head and along her back. Then she felt the cool air on her wings and tail—her human transformation had been forcibly dispelled.

"You—Your Majesty, please wait!" Adam gasped. "It's—I understand that this situation doesn't look good, but she isn't—"

"Silence!"

Adam fell silent immediately. However, his jaw clenched and unclenched—he was trying to resist the command.

_Thutmose—his voice, it has power in it. It's like the compelling voice that succubi have, except that his _isn't_limited to the weak-willed, it can even affect people on our level!_

The ancient undead walked up to Adam. His face twisted into an expression of contempt.

"You… human and a warrior, yet you work with an enemy of humanity," Thutmose said. "To fall into temptation purely because she resembles a human… it's _sickening_. I have seen farmers, who had never taken up weapons in their lives, charge at monsters for the sake of their families, and die in seconds… any _one_ of them would be worth a thousand of you!"

"Shut up!" Lilith retorted. "You don't know about him! You don't know about the effort he's put into training, or the people he's saved!"

Thutmose turned around and glared at Lilith. The succubus met his gaze: it was like looking directly into the sun, but she did not flinch.

"When I awakened, I asked you how you were able to enter my Pyramid," Thutmose said. "A feat that should not be possible."

Lilith considered her next words carefully. She hadn't survived until now by acting recklessly. She eventually decided that the best option—relatively speaking—was to tell the truth.

"The two of us found this Pyramid when it was uncovered by a sandworm—it was buried before that," Lilith explained. "The sandworm left after hitting the external barrier. Then we found the entrance and walked in. There was—there was one trap, an illusion of a human girl—"

"Yes… the lure," Thutmose said. "It was intended for monsters, who would not be able to resist easy prey… it seems that its designers made an incorrect assumption."

"That's right, I—"

"They assumed that all monsters would attack mindlessly, unaware of the more cunning individuals… such as yourself," Thutmose continued. "I do not blame them: they had little time or resources, as the situation had grown quite desperate by then. I will need to improve the security measures myself."

Lilith exchanged a glance with Adam. Their captor seemed to be less angry than before. That, at least, was a good sign—

"But you cannot fool me, monster," Thutmose hissed. "As part of my duties to my people, I mastered numerous forms of magic and fought against many of your kind. No matter how you disguise yourself, you cannot fool me. And I will not allow you to defile my Pyramid any further."

—A good sign that the two of them were still in immense danger.

Lilith licked her lips nervously. "Alright, I'll admit I was disguising myself. But—and I know that this might be hard to believe—I'm not like most monsters."

Thutmose narrowed his eyes, and Lilith winced. Even if this wasn't the first time she'd explained this, that didn't mean it was easy.

"I don't want to kill humans, or hurt them," Lilith continued. "That's one of the reasons why I'm working with Adam here. He's a hero—that's someone who fights monsters to protect humans. And the reason why we came here in the first place is because we heard that there's something here that can restore the land to the way it used to be. Do you know what's happened to your kingdom now? All the green has disappeared, it's now a desert with barely any humans left—"

Lilith abruptly stopped talking. The invisible force holding her had now tightened, just to the point of causing pain. From the side, Adam was struggling even more furiously against his restraints.

"Do _not_ lie to me."

After that command, Thutmose swept his staff to the side. An image, framed in golden light, appeared in the air in front of him. The image displayed the desert just outside the Pyramid: it couldn't be mistaken for anything else due to the tracks left by the sandworm. This was a projection, a simple type of magic used for viewing a distant location.

Upon seeing the projection, the ancient undead slumped. He no longer seemed like a mighty king or a violation of the natural laws: he seemed like an utterly broken man.

"I see," Thutmose said quietly. "In this, it seems, you have not lied. I have slumbered for far too long…" He shook his head. "That does not change who you are. But before I slay you, I must know more about the current state of the world."

Thutmose reached a hand towards Lilith, who bent her body back as far as possible. She'd heard stories of past Demon Lords who'd torn information out of the minds of their subordinates, leaving the latter broken wrecks who couldn't even stand. Someone like Thutmose could easily be capable of the same thing. Unfortunately, nothing Lilith did could prevent the hand from contacting her forehead.

_She was running through the street with her friends, who sometimes tripped each other to stay in the lead, all while their mothers yelled at them to come back for lessons._

_She was staying up late at night, with a single magical light so they could see, as she and her friends exchanged stories. Her own story was a scary one, about a hero sneaking into the village and killing them all, one by one._

_She was flying through the sky, her wings having finally developed enough for it. She enjoyed the wind in her face, enjoyed the feeling of freedom… up until she slammed into a tree and fell to the ground._

_She watched in curiosity as the adults brought a stranger to the village: a human man. She wanted to talk to him, to know more about the world outside her tiny village. But she was interrupted by the adults, who explained that this was a different sort of lesson. They explained that succubi, unlike other monsters, were all female and relied on human men to make children. Then six of them descended on the man to demonstrate this point._

_After it was all over, she couldn't sleep. She snuck out of her house and searched the village, hoping to find the man again. She eventually found his body outside the village, with a pack of werewolves feasting on it._

_The next day, she went up to everyone in the village and talked to them. The adults were casual about the event, other than looking forward to a new generation of succubi. The other children were intrigued, with a few looking forward to when they would be able to join in on the fun. None of them shared her horror at a life being lost._

_From that point on, she could no longer call the village home. But at the same time, she knew that she couldn't leave at once. As a six-year old succubus, she'd be easily killed by a human, a monster or even a wild animal. She had to become stronger. So she swallowed her disgust and asked the adults for training._

_Ten years of effort later, she had come of age, and was unquestionably the strongest of her generation in both martial and magical arts. Her mother was proud of her. Her friends were eager to go out and capture a man for themselves, and expected her to come with them. Looking at their faces, she felt a pang of regret… but then she remembered the carcass being devoured by werewolves. She therefore turned them down, said she wanted to explore the world on her own. She neglected to mention that she had no intention of coming back._

_In the distance, she saw humans, for the first time ever since she was six. She was disguised as one herself… but she didn't approach them. One part of her feared that they'd see through her disguise in an instant. Another part feared that _she_ wouldn't be able to stop herself from attacking them._

_After hearing the cry for help, she hurtled through the undergrowth, coming across a giant flower that had captured a human in its ivy. She blasted the alraune with fire, killing it and freeing the human. But when the human looked around for their rescuer, she ran off, still too afraid to meet one directly. _

_Following the sounds of battle, she found a werewolf attacking a human in full plate armour—a hero, just like in the stories. Not only that, but she could sense more monsters in the distance. She was still afraid, for either the hero or the other monsters could kill her. But she couldn't let someone die in front of her again._

The dark forest disappeared, and was replaced by a chamber of aged stone blocks. Lilith took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She was not diving through the air to impale a werewolf. She was inside the ruins of a long-lost kingdom, at the mercy of a monster-hating undead king that could kill her in an instant.

Though said undead king no longer seemed to be a threat. He staggered backwards, eventually leaning on his staff for support.

"That… impossible… no monster would ever…" Thutmose muttered.

"Do you realise the truth now?" Adam growled. He had clearly managed to throw off Thutmose's command of silence. "We're not here to defile your tomb—or home, or whatever it is. We're here because we're trying to _help_ the few humans still living in this land. If you call yourself a king, you should agree with that goal. Now, _let us go_."

Lilith was shocked at how furious Adam was… and afraid of how Thutmose might react. But to her surprise, the undead king obeyed. The magic holding her and Adam subsided, allowing the two of them to land on the ground.

Once freed, Adam's first move was to hurry over to Lilith and grasp her shoulders. He asked, "Are you alright? Can you stand? Do you—do you remember where we are, why we've come here?"

Lilith looked up at Adam's face, which was filled with nothing but concern, and wondered how she'd ever been afraid of him.

"I'm fine… and I can stand. But thanks."

Adam nodded. He withdrew his hands and looked towards the centre of the room.

Thutmose approached the two of them. He did not gesture with his hands or staff, or make any other attempt to cast magic. Instead, once he stood before them, he lowered his head.

"I have misjudged both of you. Permit me to apologise."

-ooo-

They spent several hours in the room, talking. The conversation was naturally awkward at first, since one of its participants had just been planning to kill the other two. However, Thutmose did his best to make them more comfortable. He allowed them to use the treasures in the room as mere seats, and told them not to address him with formal terms like "Your Majesty", as he no longer had a kingdom to rule over.

The main reason why the conversation lasted so long was that Thutmose kept asking questions. It turned out that he'd spent over three thousand years sleeping in his coffin, according to an artefact in his room that kept track of the number of years that passed. He therefore had no idea of what the world was now like, so he kept asking questions, even when the answers visibly saddened him.

Lilith was surprised at how much she was engaged in this conversation. With the exception of Adam, she had never had talked for so long with a human—or a _former_ human, in this case. And she'd never talked so long with someone who'd previously planned on killing her—again, with the exception of Adam. She'd certainly never expected to talk to a king—though Thutmose called himself a "pharaoh".

Eventually, it was Thutmose's turn to explain himself. To complement his words, he conjured up an illusion of his kingdom at its height. He showed them a grand city, with buildings of brick decorated with colourful murals, and tens of thousands of people milling in the streets. The contents of the illusion were similar to the artworks in the Pyramid, but there was a world of difference between static carvings—even high-quality ones—and a realistic image of the past.

"I was not a sole ruler, like the ones you are familiar with, but merely one of a multitude," Thutmose explained. He showed an illusion of a tall, handsome man with a headdress modelled after a bird's wings: it was unmistakeably his living self. Then a succession of other men appeared, each with a different attire but the same regal bearing. "These were my fellow pharaohs. The exact number varied depending on the era—for we were not always at peace with each other—but by my time, we numbered twelve. Each of us ruled our own domains, though we maintained strong alliances."

The illusion progressed through several different scenes: an immense farm that could produce enough to feed an entire city; a canal filled with ships and boats; hundreds of humans working together to build a colossal structure of stone blocks. The last scene culminated in the Pyramid: not the worn-down structure that it was in the present, but a magnificent edifice coated in white stone and capped in gold.

"That is what my Pyramid once was," Thutmose said, pride clear in his voice. "Each of us pharaohs had one constructed. They are not simply expressions of vanity, but also tools of defence. They are nigh-indestructible due to their barriers, and can channel spells capable of annihilating invading armies. With these, we thought our dynasty to be unassailable."

There was an uncomfortable silence. Thutmose looked towards the floor, unable to meet the gazes of his two guests.

"But we were fools," Thutmose continued. He altered the illusion, causing it to display scenes of monsters attacking humans. "The Demon Lord—or rather, a _past_ Demon Lord, led hordes of monsters here. We joined forces and fought back, and even managed to repulse the initial assault. But the Demon Lord was relentless. She gathered more forces and created new varieties of monsters, and continued her attack."

The city was shown once more. Its walls were guarded by hundreds of soldiers. But their duty was for naught, as a quarter of the city suddenly collapsed, entire buildings sinking into the ground. Then a sandworm emerged, and proceeded to feast on the panicking citizens.

"After years of bloodshed, it became apparent that we could not win this war," Thutmose said, in a much quieter voice than before. "No matter how many monsters we killed, more would appear. We held an emergency conference and concluded that our only option was to hide. So we buried our own Pyramids in earth and waited for a time when we could rise once more. However, we would not be able to survive for so long with our living bodies… so we preserved ourselves, using techniques previously used to preserve our dead."

Thutmose lifted his hand, which was skeletal and covered in bandages, and examined it.

"We removed our organs, dried ourselves in salt, wrapped ourselves in cloth. Then we sealed ourselves in stone sarcophagi, waiting for someone to find and awaken us…" Thutmose shook his head. "But that is enough of the past. Now we must focus on the present. These lands have deteriorated after all these years. It is time that they were restored."

"Really?" Lilith said. "Not that I'm doubting your power, but can you actually change the landscape like that?"

"I can," Thutmose declared. "These Pyramids were intended for war, but it is entirely possible to use them for peaceful purposes. I can channel spells through this Pyramid that will reflect the sun's rays during the day, yet retain heat in the ground during the night, and also bring up water from the depths. That will allow vegetation to sprout and flourish. People—humans, I should say—will migrate here and establish new settlements, where I can protect them. As for you two, I will have you lead expeditions to find the other Pyramids, and awaken my fellow pharaohs. With all of the Pyramids active once more, revitalising this land will be no mere dream."

Lilith and Adam looked at each other, hope in their eyes. After spending their lives only able to help the people in front of them, now they could make a real difference.

"However, we will not be able to do that yet."

Lilith let out a confused "What?", and Adam fell off his seat.

"What do you mean by that?" Adam asked, while pulling himself back up.

"After so long in slumber, I… am not at my full power," Thutmose admitted. "It will take me time for me to regain my strength."

_Not at full power, and he still captured the two of us with ease,_ Lilith thought ruefully. _I really didn't need another reminder of just how weak I am. What was the point of all that training?_

"How long will that take?" Lilith asked. "And… is there anything we can do to help?"

"If I rely solely on my natural recovery of energy, it would be a minimum of six months before I could use any major spells," Thutmose replied. "But there are various relics here that could accelerate that process. By using them, I could achieve the same state of readiness in…" He spent a few seconds thinking. "three weeks, four at the most. However, to ensure that this process is as rapid as possible, I will need to remain in this chamber and divert some of the energy normally used for the Pyramid's defences. I would therefore ask the two of you to stand guard while I am vulnerable."

"That—that would be a great honour, Your Ma—er, Thutmose, but are you sure about this?" Adam said.

"You've only known us for a few hours…" Lilith pointed out.

Thutmose laughed. It was a sound much livelier than Lilith expected from… well, someone of his condition. "When I was still alive, I ruled more than one hundred thousand people for over thirty years. I did not hold that position by being a poor judge of character. I may have only known the two of you for a few hours, but that is more than sufficient for me to trust you."

Lilith averted her face, as she didn't want Adam or Thutmose to see the look of embarrassment on her face.

"In that case, we'd be happy to—" Adam began.

Suddenly, the room was shaken by a great impact. All three of the people inside swayed, but managed to remain standing.

"What was that!?" Lilith demanded.

"Something has triggered the main barrier," Thutmose said, frowning. "But to feel it from so deep inside… it can't be!"

The pharaoh swept his hand to the side, conjuring up another projection of the Pyramid's exterior.

There was a colossal serpent, one that equalled, possibly even surpassed the sandworm in size. Their scales were deep purple with a metallic sheen, resembling enchanted armour plating. Their neck flared out to the sides, forming a hood-like structure. But the most intimidating aspect of the monster was their eyes: slitted pupils with golden irises and black sclerae, which seemed to look upon everything in the world as prey.

Even though Lilith didn't recognise the type of monster, and even though she was merely viewing them indirectly, she felt a primal fear that permeated her entire body. It was the kind of fear that one would feel when faced by a malevolent deity.

"What… is that?" Lilith whispered.

"I've never seen or heard of anything like this before…" Adam said. "Thutmose, just what in the world is that!?"

Thutmose did not answer immediately. Instead, the serpentine monster narrowed their eyes and spoke.

"It has been a long time, _great pharaoh._ Oh… and I see you have guests."

The overpowering voice struck Lilith and caused her to tremble. However, she remained lucid enough to discern the gender of the monster.

_She can see and talk to us through the projection!? That goes against everything I was taught about how projections work!_

Lilith looked around, desperately searching for a solution to the current situation. She was surrounded by countless treasures, many of which were powerful magical artefacts… yet she had the feeling that, even if she knew how to use each and every one, there was nothing she could do to change her fate.

Nearby, Adam was shaking the shoulders of the one person who did understand the contents of the room. "Listen to me! What kind of monster is that, and how can we defend against it!?"

"…An apophis," Thutmose replied at last. "One of the monsters at the forefront of the hordes that ended our dynasty. The Demon Lord herself was one of them. I… I did not tell you of them before because… because—"

"Because you were afraid of us?" The apophis said mockingly. "Because you were ashamed that you could never defeat even a single one of us?"

Despite her own fear, Lilith moved between Thutmose and the projection. Adam did the same. However, Thutmose pushed past them and raised his head high.

"No," Thutmose said, his voice firm once more. "It is because you were not worth being remembered. You defeated us pharaohs, I will concede that… but what happened afterwards?"

The apophis hissed.

"I have talked to these two visitors," Thutmose continued. "They told me many stories… but in none of those were your kind mentioned."

"Silence!"

"It seems that human and monster alike did not consider your kind worth remembering—"

The apophis roared, then opened her mouth and breathed out a torrent of violet light.

The projection disappeared, the room shook once more… and this time, Lilith heard the sound of stone crumbling. The Pyramid wouldn't last much longer.

"What can we do now?" Lilith asked.

"I have activated all of the Pyramid's defences—but those will do no more than delay her," Thutmose replied. "I will send the two of you out of the Pyramid to safety, while I stay behind to fight."

Lilith gripped her spear tightly. She thought of several retorts: that she and Adam could at least provide a distraction, that they could circle around and attack the apophis from behind, that they could make a difference if they fought without care for their own lives. But she remained silent. She'd seen enough of Thutmose and the apophis to realise that they were both vastly above her, like dragons compared to a mouse.

"…Alright," Lilith answered. "Then we'll continue searching for the other—"

"No," Thutmose said. "When I suggested that plan, it was under the assumption that my old enemies had died or abandoned these lands. Now I know that is no longer true. And if any of the other Pyramids were to be revealed, they would also be vulnerable to attack. You must leave these lands entirely."

The logic was unassailable… but that didn't make it any less painful. Lilith glanced towards Adam, but he didn't have an answer, either.

Meanwhile, Thutmose didn't remain still. He hurried around the room, picking up several of the treasures. He didn't stop even when there was the sound of a distant cave-in.

"Here," Thutmose said, while handing a pair of carved stone bowls to Lilith and Adam. "You will need these to survive in the desert. Fill them with water and expose them to the sun, and soon they will be filled with a thick soup. The taste is poor, but it will keep you alive."

Next came a pair of diamonds, each the size of a pebble. "These can store considerable amounts of spirit energy, and in theory should also be able to store demonic energy. They will be an asset in prolonged battles."

After that was a bag filled with small gemstones. "These have no inherent power, but they should be useful as currency even in this era. My apologies, but this is all I can give you. The remaining items here would be dangerous to you without the knowledge of how to use them."

"That doesn't matter," Lilith said. "Thank you. We… we…"

"We won't let you down," Adam said. "If only we could help you—"

Thutmose laughed. "If you wish to thank me, then you should live on and make good use of my gifts. Show the world that humans and monsters need not be enemies."

Lilith and Adam looked at each other awkwardly. It was a major burden to have thrust upon them, especially since they had yet to encounter any other examples of humans and monsters coexisting.

There was a distant explosion, and the doors to the room shook. That reminded Lilith of the uncomfortable fact that there were apparently no other exits to the room.

"Wait, how are we going to get out of—"

Before Lilith could finish her question, Thutmose tapped his staff against the wall opposite the doors. The stone changed into sand and flowed away, revealing a secret passage. A glimmer of sunlight could be seen from the other end of the passage.

"Once you leave, put as much distance between yourselves and this Pyramid as possible," Thutmose said. He paused briefly, then added, "Farewell. Thank you for soothing the loneliness of an old man."

Lilith blinked, then shook her head. "If you want to thank _us_, you should—you should win!"

"That's right!" Adam said, with forced cheer. "You must tell us more of your stories!"

Thutmose nodded, then turned to face the door. He did not say another word.

Lilith and Adam hurried towards the secret passage. They both glanced back one more time, then left the room.

The passage was just barely wide enough for them to run single-file. There was no lighting, so Lilith had to cast her magical light to ensure that neither of them would trip.

Once they reached the outside, Lilith spread her wings and picked Adam up. She flew away from the Pyramid, trying to ignore the shame in her heart.

-ooo-

_"Old man", hm? When I was still alive, I used to hate it when Rakhamun called me that. He was always so proud of his achievement, becoming pharaoh at the age of fifteen. Yet when the Demon Lord struck, it was he who received a fatal blow to save me. It should have been the other way around…_

Thutmose glanced at the doors. A wave of fell magic struck them, reducing them to dust.

_Fortunately, it seems that the gods have granted me another opportunity._

The apophis slithered through the entrance. Since her natural form was far too big to fit inside this Pyramid, she had shifted into a smaller and more humanoid shape—though like most monsters, "humanoid" was a relative term. She had a head and torso with two arms and a serpentine tail below, all covered in purple scales. Her fingers were tipped with claws, her mouth excessively wide and with a pair of venomous fangs, yet all of this paled in comparison to her eyes: these were the same as those of her true form, the eyes of an ultimate predator.

"My memories have begun to return… your name was Mortaris, was it not?" Thutmose said, with a tone typically used for greeting foreign dignitaries.

"That's correct, and I'm glad you remember," Mortaris said, also speaking in a way that did not match the situation. "It has been a long time since we last met, I was worried you might have forgotten."

Despite being provoked into a rage, the apophis had quickly regained her senses. It was only logical, Thutmose mused—for all of their power, the apophises could never have been so successful if they were merely violent brutes. In all likelihood, he'd only managed to provoke Mortaris because she'd spent millenia without any opponents on her level, causing her to grow complacent.

Thutmose pointed his staff at the intruder. "Unfortunately, you do not have my permission to be here. Leave at once, and I will spare your life."

Mortaris laughed. "There's no need to put on the act any longer, _great pharaoh_. You and I both know that you stand no chance and are merely trying to buy time for those two. And you need not bother: once I've devoured you, I will find them and allow them to join you in the netherworld."

"Hmm… you do not seem to be surprised by that pair, even though they are a human and monster."

"It is not the first time I've seen such a thing," Mortaris replied, shrugging. "I've seen several other cases during these past three millenia. Fools who tried to ignore their true nature and ally with humans… and in every case, it ended the same way, with the monster devouring the human. We are not like you humans, who squabble with each other over the pettiest of matters. We attack and devour you because it is an innate desire for us, no different from the desires to survive and to produce offspring."

This was consistent with what Thutmose already knew. He'd scanned the minds of several monsters in the past, hoping to find a weakness, yet each and every one of them had possessed the same drive to attack humans. However, Lilith had been different: although he'd sensed the same drive within her, it was buried so deeply that it was barely noticeable. The sheer strength of will she demonstrated was why Thutmose had trusted her, despite her nature as a monster.

_But this is a secret I will keep to myself,_ Thutmose thought. _If Mortaris believes that a monster is incapable of change, then I will allow her to stew in ignorance._

"On that topic, what have you been doing for all this time?" Thutmose said. "I am genuinely curious: you had abundant time and no opposition, yet you _failed_ to establish a nation of your own."

"Those pathetic tricks of yours will no longer work," Mortaris said, hissing slightly. "But to answer your question: the purpose of my siblings and I was to kill you pharaohs and destroy all of your works, so, after we could find no more traces of your existence, we decided to rest. A few of us woke, every century or so, and amused ourselves by taking on smaller forms and preying on the descendants of your subjects."

"Purpose… and who assigned you that purpose? The Demon Lord?"

"No," Mortaris said, now with a hint of pride in her voice. "We apophises were created by gods of darkness and death, gods that had been deposed by those that you worship, all for the purpose of vengeance. The most powerful of us became Demon Lord and commanded armies of lesser monsters simply to facilitate this task."

"I see," Thutmose said. He gathered spirit energy at the tip of his staff, forming a golden ball of light. "But even if you were created by gods, you do not share their power!"

Thutmose fired the spell at Mortaris. Any other opponent would have been utterly annihilated, with not even their bones remaining. Mortaris deflected the spell with one hand, causing it to strike a wall and leave a large crater.

In the next instant, Thutmose was pinned to another wall, Mortaris' hand around his throat.

"Was that the best you could think of for your last words?" Mortaris said, baring her fangs. "Regardless, it's time to finish this. I've tasted the flesh of two other pharaohs, and it was _delicious_… I hope that your undeath hasn't ruined the taste…"

Thutmose laughed. It wasn't the mirthless laugh of someone resigned to their fate, but the triumphant laugh of someone whose plan had succeeded perfectly. It was enough to make even Mortaris hesitate.

"What are you—do you think this will make me show a little mercy?"

"I am simply laughing at your stupidity," Thutmose said. "For you see… the moment you entered _my_ Pyramid, you had already lost."

Suddenly, the walls of the room shone with a crimson glow. Alarmed, Mortaris released Thutmose and fired off beams of violet light from her hands, making more craters in the walls. But it was fruitless—once the sequence began, it could not be stopped.

"You see, Mortaris, these Pyramids hold great power, but we pharaohs knew that there was always the risk of them being invaded and captured. So we included a countermeasure for just this situation…"

Mortaris lifted Thutmose into the air and slammed him onto the ground, breaking multiple bones. But Thutmose no longer felt any pain, and so he continued to laugh, right up until the point when the room was consumed by crimson light.

-ooo-

Over three hundred paces away from the Pyramid, Lilith and Adam shielded their eyes, as the structure was suddenly surrounded by a crimson light as bright as the sun. The light lasted for several seconds. Once it subsided, the pair cautiously uncovered their eyes.

Where there had once been an immense structure of stone blocks, there was now only a pile of sand. And Lilith suspected that, if she were to search this sand, she would not find anything left, not even a single bone.

Lilith turned and threw her spear with all of her strength. The spear embedded itself in a nearby dune.

"Argh! What was the point of all that!? We came here trying to find something that would let us make a difference! But instead, we end up with basically nothing and we got someone _killed!_"

Adam walked over to Lilith and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "No. We shouldn't think of it that way."

Lilith looked at Adam with a mix of scepticism and scorn, but decided to let him explain himself.

"Suppose that we never found this Pyramid," Adam continued. "Sooner or later, someone else would have found it, like a person from that village we visited. In that case, one of the apophises would also soon find it, and it would be no different from now. Alternatively, if that didn't happen, if no one ever found a Pyramid, then the pharaohs wouldn't die and would continue to sleep… but do you think they would appreciate that sort of existence?"

Lilith recalled their last moments with Thutmose. When the undead pharaoh was about to sacrifice his life for their sakes, his last words were to thank _them_ for soothing his loneliness.

"No… they wouldn't."

Adam nodded. "And there's another benefit as well, the death of an apophis. From the brief glimpse we got of her, I think it's safe to say that she was the sort of monster that preyed on humans. In killing her, Thutmose not only saved our lives, but also the lives of everyone that she would have killed in the future."

"That makes sense," Lilith said. "Sorry for—for losing control like that. It's just… today has been absolutely chaotic. First we're chased by a giant monster, then find a ruin from a lost civilisation, then meet a surviving ruler of that civilisation and nearly get killed, and I had to relive my past, and _then_ we end up befriending that ruler, only for a _second_ giant monster to attack, forcing him to sacrifice his life for us. It's just… it's just too much to deal with all at once."

"I didn't have to relive my past, but aside from that, I know exactly what you mean," Adam said. "But isn't that one of the reasons why people work together, to help each other when they have problems?"

"That's true…"

As she said this, Lilith looked at Adam. He was smiling softly, his face illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun.

And it would be so easy for her to obtain more. If she used her natural abilities, she could make his handsome face cry out in ecstasy, make him forsake his freedom in exchange for more. She could use him to infiltrate human society and work her way up the ranks. Once he was no longer of any use to her, she could discard him and move on to her next target.

Lilith slapped herself in the face. The pain brought her back to reality.

"Lilith?"

"I'm fine," Lilith lied. She walked over to her spear and pulled it out of the sand. "Just needed to work out my frustrations. Anyway, I think we'd better eat before we decide what to do next."

They pulled out the bowls and Lilith drew up some water from the sand to fill them. After a few minutes, the water had turned into thick green soup. The soup was… not good, but not terrible either. It wasn't sweet or sour or salty or bitter, but was instead devoid of any flavour. However, it still filled their bellies, just as Thutmose had promised.

With their hunger sated, they planned their next move. With the ability to obtain food in addition to water, they could travel along any route, without needing to worry about finding oases or villages.

They would first return to the desert village, and say that they had failed in their mission and nearly died. It was mostly true, it would fulfil Thutmose's wish to keep the Pyramids from being discovered, and it would also reduce the number of brave youths throwing away their lives trying to find them.

After that, they decided they would head to the southeast, towards the coast. There were multiple port towns here, and like every other human town they had problems with monsters. Additionally, neither of them had ever seen the sea before, so it would be a novel experience.

With their plan settled, they began their journey. Lilith spared one final glance towards the remains of the Pyramid.

_I won't forget what you did for us, Thutmose. Neither Adam nor I will. And we won't forget your last request._

_It might be a naïve dream… it might seem impossible… but we _will_ find a way._

* * *

_AN: And so this arc comes to an end. Lilith and Adam may not have obtained what they were after, but they did get entrusted with something else._

_One final question, does anyone think that Adam's group in the first couple of chapters seemed incompetent? I've been wondering if having them be almost wiped out in their first onscreen battle gives this impression. I can rewrite the first chapter to solve this, but I'd first like to know if anyone else thinks this is a problem._


	11. Chapter 11: Sea Breeze

_AN: __From the feedback I received on both of the sites where I post this, I've decided not to rewrite the first chapter, as I think my time would be better spent on writing new chapters._

_On a different topic, I recently started another fic: Light, Darkness and Paradox. It's a RWBY/Monster Girl Quest crossover, which has several RWBY characters being transported from the Fall of Beacon to the world of MGQ: Paradox. If that sounds interesting, please check it out._

* * *

As Adam and Lilith journeyed south, the sand and gravel were replaced by less barren environments. Grass covered the landscape, then shrubs and finally trees. It was a relief: even though the pair had grown accustomed to the hazards of the desert, they still found it uncomfortable. Food was a good example: while Thutmose's relic meant they didn't need to worry about starving, after three weeks of the flavourless soup, they were eager for real meat and vegetables.

On the twenty-third day after they left the desert village, they encountered a camp of minotaurs. They resembled bipedal oxen, with barrel-like torsos and heads bearing curved horns, and were armed with stone axes. They were roasting a human over a fire, and the bones of more humans were strewn around the camp. Lilith put all of the minotaurs to sleep, then Adam slit their throats, one-by-one. The minotaurs never even had the chance to think of retaliating.

On the twenty-ninth day, they spotted a blue band in the distance. It was too smooth to be a mountain range, yet it didn't move like a cloud bank. They increased their pace.

After reaching the top of a hill, they had a much better view of the strange sight. Both of them stopped in their tracks.

The sea stretched from one horizon to the other. The surface was far from smooth, with countless ripples passing over it. These ripples combined with the reflection of the sun to form an ever-shifting pattern of light, one more beautiful than any painting. Closer to land, the ripples grew into waves, which eventually broke on the coast to produce white foam.

Adam broke into a run, but Lilith overtook him by flying ahead. Neither of them were paying more than the bare minimum of attention to their surroundings.

They arrived at the coast, panting yet also exhilarated. Here, the waves produced a thundering sound and the air smelled strongly of salt. They could now see the numerous forms of life that dwelled here. Dark shapes flitted through the water, each one a school of fish. Flocks of birds flew through the air, often diving into the water and emerging with a fish in their beaks. The coast was dotted with clumps of green seaweed and, in the rocky areas, dense beds of shellfish. Occasionally, a crab would emerge from amidst the rocks and scurry along to its next hiding spot. There were even many insects here, either buzzing around the seaweed or running across the sand.

Adam, like the rest of his peers, had been taught about the sea. Specifically, he was taught about how most of the world was covered by it, with land actually being in the minority. But he'd never encountered any water body larger than a lake, so he simply couldn't imagine what the sea was truly like.

Bending down, Adam examined a tiny pool of water that was trapped among several rocks. The volume of the pool was no greater than that of a bucket, but even so it was teeming with life: seaweed, three distinct types of shellfish, even a few fish that darted about frantically.

"Hey, look!"

Adam looked up to see Lilith pointing at something to the east. It was distant and hard to see, but as Adam's eyes adjusted, he could make out masts and sails—it was a ship. This was another of the many things that he'd heard about but never seen himself.

"If there's a ship, then there may be a port in that direction as well," Adam said. "Let's follow it."

They therefore proceeded eastward along the coast. The environment shifted several times during their journey. At one point, there were large dunes of sand like those in the Ataraca Desert. At another point, the coast did not slope down gently to the sea but instead formed a sheer cliff face. And over time, the number of visible ships increased from one, to three, to seven, and so on.

A few hours later, when the sun was setting and there were dozens of ships filling the sea, Adam and Lilith finally saw the port. It was part of an immense city, comprising thousands of buildings that covered the land all the way to the edge of the sea. A stone wall enclosed the three sides of the city that bordered land, a typical defence against monsters. The fourth, seaward side had multiple watchtowers instead of a wall, with the spaces in between being used for wharves and piers. There were people everywhere and they were especially concentrated around the port, where they resembled a swarm of ants.

The pair walked up to the main gate of the city. It was enormous—three or four wagons could fit through it side-by-side with room to spare. Engraved on the stone above was the name of the city: Port Habuton. A paved road extended from the gate and all the way to the horizon, presumably joining the city to another. At this very moment, merchants and other travellers were passing through the gate.

The gate had half a dozen guards, who checked everyone entering or leaving the city. They were armed with spears and armoured with breastplates and simple helmets. When Adam and Lilith arrived at the gate, one of the guards said casually, "Name, and your reason for being here."

"I am Hero Adam, from the town of Merith, and this is my partner Lilith," Adam said. Aside from the name of his partner, this was a line he'd said countless times before. "We are here to rest, resupply and find if there is any work for us."

"You won't have any trouble finding work, there's always monsters around the city or attacking the ships," the guard said, while writing down the pair's names on a piece of parchment. "Alright, go on through."

They entered Port Habuton and slowed down for a few moments. After spending so much time in the sparsely inhabited desert, they were briefly overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here.

Their first stop was at an inn to sit down, eat and rest for the night. Unsurprisingly, most of the menu was seafood. Both Adam and Lilith decided to try something new: the former chose scallop, a type of shellfish, that was fried and served with seaweed; the latter chose a stew of sea cucumbers. When the latter's dish arrived, both of them stared at it, since it looked like the cook had simply thrown slugs into boiling water and poured the result into a bowl. But after Lilith took a tentative taste, she said that it was better than it looked and began eating it with relish.

And inns were also an excellent place to hear the local rumours. Back when Adam's friends were still alive, every time they visited a new town they would stop at a local inn to gather information. Though there was a downside to this: on the occasions when there were no monsters to slay, certain individuals in the group would stay too long in the inn and needed to be dragged out before they started a brawl.

As they ate, Adam and Lilith heard various rumours. Some of them were obviously wild stories being spread to entertain and attract attention. Some contained so much nautical jargon that they were incomprehensible to a pair who'd never even boarded a ship. But one story in particular caught their attention.

"—and Arnold told me that every single person had been killed, and then buried. Not a mass grave, they all got buried separately. What's more, nothing was stolen—money, food, clothing, tools, none of it was missing."

"That's impossible, nobody would go to all that effort and take nothing."

"I'm not lying, and I know that Arnold never would. The man couldn't tell a lie to save his life."

"Okay, but… that still doesn't explain why anyone would do such a thing."

"It could be a cult," added a third voice. "I've heard of cults like that, they try to gain the favour of fallen gods for power. Supposedly, this involves sacrificing people in rituals—maybe the burying and everything else is part of those rituals?"

"Maybe, but—"

Adam had now lost his appetite. This was the second time he'd heard such a story, and while it could simply be a coincidence—morbid stories of this sort were hardly uncommon—he had the strange feeling that it was more than that.

"What do you think, Lilith?" Adam asked, gesturing towards the men who were discussing this rumour. "It sounds just as strange as the last time we heard it, but—"

"But the details are pretty much the same," Lilith said. She looked down at her stew, which she was also no longer eating. "And in both cases, it doesn't sound like they're lying."

Adam nodded, and turned on his chair to face the group of men. These all had the tanned skin and tattoos of sailors. He asked them, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying, and—"

"It sounds crazy, I know," said the sailor who'd brought up the rumour. "But I swear that it's—"

"No, I believe you," Adam said. "It's not the first time I've heard of something like that happening."

"Really? Where was that?" asked the sailor who'd initially doubted the rumour.

"I heard of it in a village far to the north of here, in the Narsel region," Adam replied. "Unfortunately, I didn't learn the exact location of the village where the massacre actually happened."

"Narsel… that's quite far from what I heard about," said the first sailor. "The massacre I heard about was on the east coast of the continent. Though I'm also not sure about the exact location."

_The east coast? That's another place I've never visited,_ Adam thought. _It would take at least a month to get there on horseback. By the time we got there, whoever's responsible for these massacres would be long gone…_

Suddenly, Adam remembered one fact that he'd received in his education as a hero. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that a ship can travel faster than any other form of transport, is that true?" He asked.

All three of the sailors nodded. The first replied, "That's right! With a ship, you can travel to any port on the continent in two weeks or less! You… are you planning on doing something about what's going on?"

Adam looked at Lilith to confirm that she agreed, then said yes.

"In that case, there's a ship leaving tomorrow morning that goes east, to the port of Selene," the sailor said. "It won't take you all the way there, but it's still the majority of the distance. Once you're there, you should be able to find another ship. And you won't have any trouble getting onto a ship, the sea's filled with monsters and the captains are always hiring people to fight them off."

Adam bought the three sailors another round of drinks as thanks for the information. Then, he and Lilith finished their meals and went up to their room for the night.

The two spent more than an hour discussing the strange massacres.

First, there was the theory of them being the work of a cult, as one of the sailors had suggested. Adam had heard of such cults from a fellow hero, who'd warned him that while most were simply tricks to let the cult leader dominate a group, some were able to tap into genuine power. The latter were extremely dangerous and it was believed that multiple heroes would be needed to destroy one such cult.

Another theory, which Lilith proposed, was that they were the work of a new race of monsters. While monsters in general killed and ate humans, they varied considerably in how they did this. Succubi were one example, with their manner of consuming humans being infamous, especially among teenage boys. Another example were vampires, who only drank human blood and refused to touch the rest of the body.

A third theory was that the massacres were not actually real, with the rumours being spread by monsters in disguise as a way of sowing fear and despair among humans. This would explain why none of the rumours included an exact location.

In the end, though, they could not come to any solid conclusion. Each theory had its own flaws and none seemed to stand above the rest. They eventually stopped their discussion and went to sleep.

-ooo-

As soon as the sun rose, Adam and Lilith left the inn and headed for the port. The closer they got to their destination, the greater the proportion of sailors, fishermen and the like in the surrounding crowd.

At the port, countless crates and barrels were being loaded and unloaded from the ships. In addition to seafood and salt, there were plenty of goods from all around the world. Adam even spotted a crateful of clothes that, judging from the distinctive blue dye, originated from his own hometown of Merith. While he was here, Adam also took a closer look at the watchtowers: each had an archer standing at the top, gazing vigilantly at the sea.

By asking around, they soon found the ship they were after. It had three masts, with three sails on the central one and two on the masts to the front and rear. The front end of the ship was carved to resemble an armoured woman with feathery wings: a valkyrie, a type of angel that served as the swords of the gods. Barrels of alcohol were currently being loaded onto the ship.

Standing by the gangplank was the ship's captain, a grizzled man wearing a faded blue coat and a hat in a matching style. His left cheek was marred by three parallel scars. Some people were known to give themselves fake scars to appear strong, but Adam could tell these scars were genuine. It was a clear reminder of the hazards that one faced on the sea.

When Adam and Lilith approached, the captain looked at the two of them. His gaze was that of a veteran: wary and appraising. It reminded Adam of the retired heroes who'd trained him.

"Here to act as escorts?" The captain asked. His voice was just loud enough to be heard over the background noise.

"We are," Adam answered. "We also wish to travel to the port of Selene."

The captain nodded. "We still have a cabin left, and we can always use more help—the monsters have been more active lately. How does ten silver coins for each of you sound?"

Adam nodded. The money wasn't necessary, due to Thutmose's gift of gemstones, but it would appear unusual to refuse it.

"Then welcome aboard the Flying Valkyrie, we're leaving in an hour," the captain said. "Oh, and the name's Aran."

Adam and Lilith introduced themselves, then Captain Aran rattled off a series of directions. Following these directions, they boarded the ship and went to a cabin on a lower deck.

To avoid getting in the way of the crew, the pair stayed in the cabin while the Flying Valkyrie was prepared for departure. While waiting, they heard the constant sounds of boots against wood and sailors shouting to each other, and felt the constant rocking of the ship.

Finally, the ship began to move forward. A few minutes after that, a sailor knocked on their door and the doors of the other cabins, announcing that the passengers could now leave their cabins.

Adam, Lilith and many others moved up to the main deck. Here, Adam saw that the ship had moved several hundred paces away from Port Habuton. He looked up to see the sails bulging as the wind pushed on them, and for a moment he feared that they would tear, but the sails withstood the strain.

He then looked around at his fellow passengers. They were a varied bunch, with rich and poor, young and old all represented. Many of the children looked at Adam, awed by his plate armour and the sword sheathed at his side. Adam even caught a glimpse of a short, stocky man with a thick beard and a finely crafted axe on his back.

_It's unusual to see a dwarf on a ship,_ Adam thought. _Though it makes sense that they don't spend all of their time in caves and mines._

Adam then spotted Lilith, leaning on the railing of the deck. At first, he thought she was simply watching the sea like many other passengers. But on closer inspection, he noticed that she was clenching her jaw slightly and tapping her fingers on the railing. He recognised these as signs of frustration, and he had a good idea of the reason for this.

Adam walked over and leaned on the railing next to Lilith. Due to the sound of the waves, nobody would be able to overhear their conversation unless they were right next to them.

"You want to fly, don't you?"

"Yeah… I'm wondering what the sea, and this ship, would look like from the air."

Adam didn't know what else to say. There was no point in saying that Lilith would need to restrain herself for now, since she already knew that very well. And he couldn't fly himself, so he would never be able truly understand how she felt. All he could do was lay his hand on hers.

_Though I suppose… I suppose it would be like being forbidden from walking, being forced to crawl on hands and legs. If I were in that situation… I don't think I'd handle it nearly as well as she does._

_And the problem goes beyond her. If there are other monsters that don't wish to harm humans, almost all of them wouldn't be able to disguise as humans to live in human society. They wouldn't be able to live with other monsters, either, and I doubt they'd be accepted by dwarves or elves… so they'd be isolated from everyone else. On the other hand, a human like me, who knows that monsters aren't necessarily evil, _also_ needs to keep this a secret, to avoid being executed as a traitor and heretic. And that's not getting into this constant war between our races…_

_It's not right. It's not right that we have to fight and die, that we have no hope of ever finding peace._

Adam glanced back. Port Habuton was no longer in sight. The land in general could still be seen, but it was far enough that he couldn't make out most features.

Suddenly, Lilith shifted her hands. Adam briefly thought that he'd offended her, but then he saw her frown at the water.

"Captain!" Lilith shouted. "There's monsters approaching—"

Many figures burst from the water and landed on the deck of the Flying Valkyrie. Adam had already drawn his sword and he slashed at the nearest of the monsters, inflicting a fatal wound. The monster fell to the deck: humanoid, a male judging from the broad shoulders, covered in blue scales, and his feet were similar in structure to a fish's fins.

_Merfolk,_ Adam thought. _Sea monsters that have the tails of fish, but they can split these into legs to walk on land. And they can also—_

The remaining merfolk screamed, creating an unearthly sound that set Adam's teeth on edge. The hero could still move thanks to his reinforcement, and he saw that the same was true for the ship's crew, who picked up anything in reach and fought back against the merfolk. Most of the passengers weren't so resilient, and they collapsed while trying to cover their ears.

_—__they can also infuse their voices with magic to cripple their victims! We have to kill them as fast as possible!_

Adam dodged a trident aimed at his head, then countered with a blow that decapitated his opponent. But just as he began running towards another merfolk, he heard the sounds of more monsters leaping out of the water.

However, the new set of attackers weren't merfolk. Their bodies had smooth skin instead of scales, and from the waist down split into a bundle of sucker-lined tentacles. Each wielded multiple daggers in their hands and tentacles.

_Scyllas!? Did they notice the commotion and join in!? Wait—_

The scyllas rushed in, using their tentacles to pull themselves across the deck at high speeds. They attacked the crew and the passengers, and Adam had to jump back to avoid being disembowelled by a scylla's daggers. However, the scyllas and the merfolk made no attempts to attack each other.

_They're working together!_


	12. Chapter 12: Troubled Waters

Adam swung his sword, severing the tentacles of an attacking scylla. He then rushed forward shield-first, striking the scylla in the torso, causing her to vomit blue blood and collapse.

_I remembered that lesson correctly,_ Adam thought. _Scyllas have softer bones than those of humans or most other monsters, which makes them more flexible but also means their internal organs are less protected._

A dagger lashed in from Adam's left. He raised his shield in an attempt to block it, but the tentacle holding the dagger reached around his shield and struck Adam in the chest. Fortunately, Adam's armour stopped it, and he retaliated with a slash that decapitated the second scylla.

_But no matter how many I kill, it seems like more keep coming! And I didn't receive much training on fighting multiple races of monsters at once!_

Adam looked around for Lilith. His eyes passed over groups of sailors fending off the monster raiders, passed over the dwarf cutting apart a scylla with his axe. He eventually found Lilith near the edge of the deck, engaged in her own desperate battle against two merfolk. She was attempting to burn them with fire, but her opponents appeared to be capable mages and were shielding themselves with curtains of water.

After a second or two, Adam was forced into another fight. A particularly large merfolk rushed at him, wielding a trident that looked big enough to impale Adam even through his armour. The hero blocked one thrust of the trident with his shield, then another, in both cases being careful to avoid taking the full brunt of the blows. Despite his efforts, Adam's shield received visible gouges from the merfolk's trident. And Adam wasn't able to find an opportunity to strike back.

After a third blocked attack, the merfolk changed his tactics. He began holding back, remaining just outside the range of Adam's sword. At irregular intervals, he would charge in, dealing a blow that required all of Adam's strength to stop, then retreat and repeat the process. With every charge he stopped, Adam felt intense pain and his spirit energy reserve decreased, yet the merfolk showed no signs of even slowing down.

_I can't keep this up. In that case—I'll have to try being unpredictable as well!_

Adam rushed forward, shield ready to block the trident, sword ready to deal a crippling blow to his opponent's arm, which he would then follow up with a fatal blow. It was a reckless move, and one that he would not dare attempt if his opponent had a shield or armour of their own. But in this situation, he had no chance of victory without being reckless.

The merfolk bent his left arm, catching Adam's sword on his forearm at an angle. The sword drew blood, but the thick scales prevented it from cutting any deeper. Having immobilised Adam's weapon for an instant, the merfolk countered with a thrust of his own, denting Adam's armour and knocking the breath out of the hero.

Before the merfolk could capitalise on this opportunity, a ball of pale blue energy struck him in the side, freezing his right arm and half of his torso. Using _this_ opportunity, Adam pulled on his sword, freeing it and also unbalancing the merfolk, allowing him to deal a crushing blow with his shield.

It took half a dozen more attacks after that, but eventually Adam brought the hulking merfolk down.

Adam quickly looked back towards Lilith. She had frozen her previous two opponents, turning their water shields into prisons. However, she was now engaged in another fight, so Adam had no chance to thank her for the assistance.

And once again, Adam had his own fight to deal with. Another merfolk approached him. Adam blocked the merfolk's trident and slashed her abdomen, a disembowelling strike, only for a tentacle to coil around his legs and pull him down to the deck.

Adam tried to stab upwards with his sword, but the scylla restrained his sword arm with a tentacle. The remaining tentacles coiled around Adam's other limbs, preventing him from fighting back or escaping. Then the scylla wrapped his hands around Adam's throat and began to squeeze.

The strangulation lasted for several seconds, during which Adam desperately tried to free at least one limb so he could force the scylla off him. Eventually, a sailor struck the scylla in the head with a club, crushing the skull and freeing Adam.

The sailor extended a hand to help the gasping Adam stand up. Then he froze, a dagger piercing through his chest. Acting on instinct, Adam lashed out with his sword, killing the scylla responsible and avenging the sailor.

_At this rate… we'll lose,_ Adam thought. He scanned the battlefield, taking in the numerous human corpses. _No, we might be able to win, but the casualties would be immense. As a hero, as a human, and as a person, I can't let that happen!_

_I'll have to use that… it'll be my first time using it in actual combat, I have to hope that it works. But before I can use that, I first need to—_

Adam ran over to Lilith, killing another merfolk when they got in the way. He managed to get her attention, then said, "Plan E!"

Lilith widened her eyes in surprise, but she nodded.

They implemented the plan. Adam remained still, gathering all of his remaining spirit energy for one final spell. Lilith remained by his side, defending him against any of the other monsters that approached. Then Adam shouted that he was ready. Lilith's response was to impale a scylla and then drag them over to the edge—hopefully, this would appear to external observers as the scylla dragging her in its death throes. Finally, Lilith jumped over the edge, bringing the scylla with her.

Adam raised his sword to the sky and roared, "Oh, holy light! Purge the wicked in the names of the gods! Evil Obliterating Incantation!"

For a moment, Adam was like a miniature sun, enveloping the entire ship with white light. The light subsided to reveal that every single monster had collapsed to the deck, while the humans were unaffected—other than being surprised by the powerful spell.

_If these were undead or demons, it would have completely destroyed them,_ Adam thought. He executed a fallen scylla with a quick slice of the throat. _But this is enough to turn the situation around!_

The crew quickly recovered from their surprise and followed Adam's lead, executing the remaining monsters. Even some of the passengers—those that had recovered from the merfolk's screams—joined in.

Eventually, Adam came to the last surviving merfolk. Though her muscles were paralysed, her eyes stared at him with a mix of hatred and fear. Adam hesitated, but only for a second, and then brought his sword down.

Adam rushed to the side of the ship. He spotted Lilith climbing up, using her spear to help by sticking it into the gaps in the rough wood. Once she was close, he helped her onto the deck. She was soaked in seawater, her skin was pale and she was breathing heavily, but she was at least alive.

Captain Aran approached. He had clearly been in the thick of the fighting as well, with a cutlass in hand and several cuts scattered around his body.

"Thanks for the help," Aran said. He cleaned the blood off his cutlass and sheathed it. "We would have had a much harder time without you two."

Adam nodded. "I know some healing magic, if you need—"

"I don't need it, save it for those who do," Aran said, gesturing around.

All around the Flying Valkyrie, the crew were tending to each other and to the passengers. After confirming that Lilith was in a stable condition, Adam joined in. He healed a number of broken bones and deep cuts. However, there were some that were too far gone: these were given a quick death, then had weights tied to their bodies and were lowered overboard. It was an ignoble fate, as they would be consumed by animals or even by sea monsters, but as Captain Aran explained, it was the only option: they couldn't leave the corpses on the ship to spread disease, nor could they cremate them when the ship was composed of very flammable wood.

While doing this, Adam was approached by the dwarf from before. The dwarf introduced himself as Balin Ironheart, of the dwarven city of Vaseram. He explained that he'd been on the verge of being killed by a scylla when Adam had cast his spell. He thanked Adam profusely for the aid and said that, if he ever came to Vaseram, that Balin would definitely repay the favour.

Towards the end of the cleanup process, people began to discuss the recent attack. In particular, they were unnerved by how it involved two monster races cooperating.

"I've never heard of anything like it happening before. If it wasn't for the favour of Poseidon, we might have all been wiped out."

"It was their teamwork that let them kill so many of us. One second you've locked weapons with a mer, and then a tentacle reaches around and stabs you. Or you're grappling with a scylla, then one of the mers distracts you with a scream."

"Could—Could there be a new Demon Lord? That's the only time that all the monsters work together!"

"It can't be… but—"

"The Demon Lord can't be back!" Captain Aran shouted, his voice reaching every spot on the Flying Valkyrie and causing everyone to fall silent. "If the Demon Lord was back, then we'd be seeing entire cities falling to the monsters. Now get back to work!"

The crew resumed their duties and the passengers retreated to the lower decks. However, the discussions also resumed, just in quieter voices than before.

Adam finished his healing and went back to Lilith. She had received a towel and cup of rum from the crew. However, her skin was still pale and she was trembling slightly.

"You… I still hit you with the spell, didn't I?" Adam asked in a whisper.

"It's fine… it was the only option, and I should be fine after some sleep," Lilith replied.

"But if I'd just been more careful—"

"Then you, me, and many others would be dead," Lilith said firmly. "Anyway, we shouldn't talk about this here."

Adam clenched his teeth, but said nothing more on the topic. He didn't stop thinking about it, however.

_Evil Obliterating Incantation… it's a spell that I learned several years ago, as a way of defeating a large group of monsters at once. I wasn't skilled enough to use it under combat conditions—not even with the advantage of surprise, as monsters would be able to sense the gathered energy and react. It was only thanks to training with Lilith that I improved my magical skill enough to use it now… and how did I repay her for that? By nearly killing her! If she had been just a little closer when I cast the spell, she would have been paralysed, wouldn't have been able to cling to the ship._

A grisly image entered Adam's mind: Lilith dragged beneath the waves, sea monsters tearing her apart in a feeding frenzy, staining the water red. It was by no means an unrealistic possibility, since even if these particular monsters were able to work together, that didn't mean they would consider an unfamiliar monster to be an ally.

This wasn't the first time that Adam had accidentally attacked or been attacked by an ally. It was unavoidable in the chaos of battle. But he'd never had it happen in such a close battle. And it had happened just because his partner was a monster.

_Evil Obliterating Incantation… I suppose I can't fault whoever came up with the name, since they made it under the genuine belief that monsters are all evil. Although… there are many humans, and elves and dwarves and other non-monsters, who are undoubtedly evil, yet this spell does nothing to them… it can't even blind them._

While Adam was lost in these thoughts, Aran approached. The captain's wounds had been bandaged and he was sipping rum from a mug.

"I can now see why you wanted us here," Adam said.

Aran rolled his eyes. "The sea's filled with just as many monsters as the land, but we don't get even half as many of heroes coming through… Anyway, for your performance, I'm doubling your pay, for both of you."

"That's not nec—"

"The hell it isn't," Aran growled. "Consider it me making an investment, to get more monsters killed and more humans saved. I know you're not the type to just waste it on drink and whores, so it sounds like a pretty good investment to me."

Lilith answered before Adam could. "Alright, thank you."

Aran leaned on the ship's railing, gazing at the water. Before, Adam might have interpreted this action as him admiring the view. Now, he could tell that the captain was scanning the water for more monsters.

"There's been more monster activity lately, but this is the largest raid I've ever seen in my entire time on the sea," Aran said. "And it's the first time I've ever seen _or_ heard of a raid with multiple races working together. You… what do you think?"

Adam reviewed his lessons and considered his words carefully before responding.

"I agree with what you said before, that there can't be a new Demon Lord," Adam said. "At the same time, this is highly unusual behaviour for monsters. In these periods where there is no Demon Lord, they usually shun each other, or even fight among themselves. In fact, I've heard that the new Demon Lord is chosen via the candidates fighting each other to death, with the survivor taking the throne."

Of course, Adam neglected to mention that he'd learned this fact from a monster, and that this monster was currently standing right next to them.

"But monsters of different races can sometimes work together, even without a Demon Lord," Lilith said. "It can happen when an especially powerful monster forces their will on weaker monsters—in a way, they act as a lesser Demon Lord."

Aran grimaced. "The sea's dangerous enough, and now there's something like that out there? Although, that doesn't explain why I've never heard of this happening before."

Lilith looked away. For a moment, Adam wondered if he should interject, but then she spoke. "I can only speculate at this point, but… I think it's definitely happened before. When there _is_ a Demon Lord, there's so much destruction, so much death, that lots of knowledge is simply lost. To give an example, can either of you name… say, the ruler of Lescatie from five hundred years ago?"

Adam doubted that Lilith knew that fact, either. However, her point was undeniable, as Adam also didn't know who said ruler was, and from the blank look on his face, neither did Aran.

"Exactly. In previous ages, there must have been monsters who had the idea of dominating those weaker than them, but without trying to become Demon Lord. But records of that must have been lost…"

All three of them fell silent. Eventually, Captain Aran left to deal with an issue elsewhere on the ship, leaving Adam and Lilith to continue their discussion.

-ooo-

Three days after its departure, the Flying Valkyrie arrived at the port city of Selene. Fortunately, there were no more monster attacks in this time, though there was some bad weather on the second day.

On their arrival, Captain Aran gave Adam and Lilith their pay: twenty silver coins each. He also provided them with the names of several ships that could take them to their destination on the east coast. He didn't know any new information regarding the strange massacres, but he did warn them to be careful.

Selene was a bigger city than Port Habuton, with more people, more ships and a greater variety of goods being traded. For now, the pair decided to recuperate in the city instead of trying to find their next ship.

The first stop was a local blacksmith. Adam dropped off his sword and armour to be repaired. The blacksmith was surprised by the armour, saying it was made of a metal that was rarely used nowadays, but said that he could repair it. While he was here, Adam also replaced his shield, which was too heavily damaged to be repaired.

The repair would take several hours, since the blacksmith had other projects to deal with. In the meantime, Adam and Lilith stopped at an inn to eat and to talk about the new problem they'd discovered.

"A monster capable of uniting multiple races by force… they'd have to be extremely powerful," Lilith said, lifting a spoonful of stew to her mouth. "Maybe even as powerful as that apophis back in the desert."

"In theory, I could contact the local church and barracks and request reinforcements," Adam said. "But I'd prefer to avoid that when possible, since… well, if we were travelling alongside many heroes and priests, all trained and experienced at fighting monsters, one of them might realise _that_."

"And on top of that, we're dealing with sea monsters, who will obviously have their base underwater," Lilith continued. "It makes the usual strategies useless. We can't just keep defending against attacks like these. But at the same time, we can't just dive into the sea and—unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Well, back at home, I remember hearing about a spell to breathe at high altitudes," Lilith explained. "It's useful for fl—mountain climbing, since the air is thinner the higher you are. That spell worked by concentrating the air around you—but that's not important. The point is, there could also be spells for breathing underwater!"

"Hmm… people who live around the sea would definitely be the type to know such spells," Adam said. He took a bite out of a roll and chewed it while considering his response. "But breathing is only one part of the problem. Underwater, your vision is limited, it's hard to move, and the cold water saps away your strength. It would be impossible to fight under such conditions, especially against monsters who consider the sea their home."

"That's true," Lilith said, deflating slightly. "But we could still ask around. It's possible that the people here know of ways to handle those problems as well."

After finishing their lunch, they left of the inn and split up to explore the city while gathering information, with an agreement to meet at the city square after four hours.

Adam first went to the inns near the port to speak with the sailors and fishermen. These were the people most likely to know the information he was after. Most told him that they didn't do any work underwater: they had no need to in their jobs, and merely entering the water made one more vulnerable to monsters. Some, such as the fishermen who gathered pearl oysters, did dive for their work. These told him how they could stay underwater for long periods: most had trained until they could hold their breaths for over ten minutes and could withstand the cold temperatures, and a few also had magical artefacts that could increase this time limit to as long as thirty minutes. However, none of them knew of any methods for actually breathing underwater, nor for dealing with the other problems in this environment. Still, Adam was able to obtain the locations of the merchants who sold such artefacts, for which he was grateful.

His next stop was the marketplace. This was a bustling place, with hundreds of stalls being visited by thousands of people. Adam bought various small goods as souvenirs, such as a shell necklace and a small fish carved from coral. As he made these purchases, he asked the merchants questions. Again, most knew nothing about the topic he was interested, but a few were able to provide him with more locations.

Eventually, Adam came to the specific merchants who dealt in artefacts for underwater exploration. Some of these were actually charlatans, as Adam determined from the lack of magical aura from their products. Fortunately, most sold genuine magical artefacts. However, these still wouldn't be enough for what he and Lilith planned: finding the base of the sea monsters, fighting through any opposition and slaying the leader.

_And I'm still not entirely sure about how to do that,_ Adam thought, after visiting the third merchant. _A monster that powerful might be able to survive a cast of Evil Obliterating Incantation, even at close range… and I don't have enough energy for two in the same day._

_We could try a strategy of division, like we did for the harpies and lamias back then. If our guess is correct, the merfolk, scyllas and any others wouldn't truly support their leader. However, they might not be willing to fight back against such a powerful monster. And it's possible that they _do_ support their leader, even if it's just so their raids are more successful and they can eat more humans._

As the time limit approached, Adam found one more merchant and decided that they would be the last one. Afterwards, he would pick up his equipment from the blacksmith and reunite with Lilith.

This merchant was an elderly woman with white hair tied in a bun and wearing a blue dress. She owned a small stall in a corner of the market that sold a variety of objects: most appeared to simply be mundane jewellery, but a few of the items gave off a faint aura of magic.

"See anything you like?" the merchant asked when Adam stopped at her stall.

"Well, I'm looking for something in particular: something that might let me breathe underwater?" Adam said. "And if possible, something to deal with the other challenges of acting underwater, like the limited vision and the cold."

The merchant immediately changed. She straightened and looked at Adam with an appraising gaze. "Why do you want such a thing?" She asked.

Adam decided to tell the truth, as there weren't any plausible lies in this situation. "I'm a hero, and I wish to take the fight to the sea monsters in their lair. It's the only way to stop the recent increase in monster attacks on ships."

"Some—no, almost everyone would call that a foolish goal," the merchant said. "Even if there were charms with the effects you describe, and even if you equipped an entire army with them, they would still have no chance against monsters in their favoured environment."

"An army would have no chance," Adam conceded. "But sometimes, a small group can accomplish what an army could not."

"Like in the legends, a single person sneaking into a castle and opening it up to let an army in?" the merchant said. She snorted. "Those legends are just stories, told to entertain and to keep up hope."

"But there is a kernel of truth in those legends, isn't there?" Adam pointed out.

The merchant raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps. Hmm. You don't seem to the sort of reckless hero who rushes off and gets themselves killed on their first mission. I _may_ have what you're looking for… But first, tell me: what do you know about Poseidon?"

"Poseidon? She's the goddess of the sea," Adam replied. "Sailors pray to her for safety, fishermen for a good catch."

"All true, but… there is more to that."

The merchant reached down and pulled out a box. She opened it up to reveal two necklaces. Each consisted of a loop of seaweed threaded through a shell, and this shell had a tiny blue crystal embedded in it.

"These necklaces… the charms attached to them hold the blessing of Poseidon herself," the merchant said. "Wear these, and you can breathe, see and move around underwater as though you were on land. You can even drink the seawater with no problems."

Adam blinked. He hadn't expected to find something that solved all of his problems after just a few hours of searching.

"I know, it sounds unbelievable. You may be wondering why there aren't more charms like these, despite how useful they are," the merchant continued. She glanced briefly towards the sky. "Tell me, are you a faithful worshipper of the Chief God?"

Adam was even more surprised by this question. It was the duty of any human to devote themselves to the Chief God, and this was doubly true for heroes… and yet here he was, a hero who violated the Chief God's will by working with a monster.

"…I do," Adam replied.

The merchant nodded and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly in a smile. "I see. In that case, I am happy to sell these to you. The price… how about six copper coins for both of them?"

"Six coppers—that's the same as it would cost for any of these!" Adam exclaimed, gesturing at the unenchanted jewellery in the stall. "I can't accept—"

"These charms are useless to me now," the merchant said. "If anything, I should be _giving_ them to you… but my merchant's soul won't let me give away anything for free. Six coppers it is. Are you unable to afford that price?"

Adam couldn't stop himself from laughing. He reached into his coin-purse and pulled out six copper coins: a tiny fraction of what he could get by selling even one of Thutmose's gemstones. He handed over the coins and accepted the necklaces.

"There… I hope you make good use of these," the merchant said. "I no longer care about what happens to me, but these attacks have caused great suffering to this city, and others."

"I will," Adam promised. "And you shouldn't think of yourself that way. Age is no reason to stop caring about your life."

The merchant waved a hand dismissively. "Save that hero's charm for a woman closer to your age."

Laughing, Adam walked away from the merchant's stall.

Adam returned to the blacksmith to pick up his sword and armour, then headed for the city square. Along the way, he remembered the elderly merchant's words, and Lilith's face popped into his mind. He shook his head frantically to clear that image.

_There's no way it would work. I mean, I like her as a person, but…_

_But… that's right, her past. With her past, there's no way she'd want that sort of relationship with a human!_

_That's right… so, there's no point in hoping for something like that._

_Anyway, I have more important things to worry about. I have these charms, and if they work, that solves half of our problem. The other half—how to actually defeat a monster capable of forcing others to cooperate—is something I still need to think about._

As he walked towards the city square, Adam tried to keep himself busy by coming up with plans. But no matter how hard he tried, thoughts of Lilith kept re-entering his mind.


	13. Chapter 13: Taking the Plunge

_AN: With this and the latest chapter of _Light, Darkness and Paradox_, I've managed to write ~8k words in a week. It's certainly an improvement from when I first started writing. Anyway, here's the next chapter._

* * *

At the city square, Lilith leaned against a pillar, disappointed at her lack of success. Most of the artefacts she'd examined were fakes, and the few genuine ones wouldn't be enough for what she and Adam wished to do.

_Does this mean we'll have to abandon the whole idea?_

It was the reasonable decision. Both Lilith and Adam had been taught how to swim, but it was only to prevent them from drowning if they fell into water. And even if they were master swimmers, that wouldn't let them defeat aquatic monsters in the latter's favoured environment.

But then Lilith recalled what she'd seen and heard in her search. The city certainly seemed bustling at first glance. However, thanks to a succubus' ability to sense people's emotions, she could discern the undercurrent of fear and worry in the population. And when she talked to the merchants for long enough, they would reveal how they had trouble replenishing their wares and how less and less people could afford to buy them.

_We have to help these people… but we can't do anything without—_

Lilith felt a familiar, and extremely pleasant, spirit energy source approach. She turned to see Adam approaching, and noticed that he seemed worried.

"I'm guessing you didn't find anything, either?" Lilith asked.

"Huh?" Adam said, blinking. "Oh, actually, I did find what we were after!" Adam held out two shell necklaces. "In fact, if the merchant was telling the truth about these, then they're even better than we were expecting!"

Lilith took the necklaces and examined them. They had a faint but unmistakeable aura of magic, one that was aligned with the element of water. And this aura was somehow comforting: Lilith felt that if she wore one of these necklaces, she would be protected from any and all harm.

"We'll need to test them first, but they certainly have power," Lilith said. "But just what did you do to find artifacts like these?"

Adam laughed. "You could say I used my hero's charm."

Lilith froze. She imagined her partner walking up to a merchant, a human woman who was similar in age to him. Her partner smiled, causing the merchant to laugh. Then he asked her if she had anything of interest to offer, and the merchant leaned in closer, and…

_No. No, that's—I'm being an idiot. He was clearly joking._

However, even if it hadn't actually happened now, the scenario in Lilith's imagination was a definite possibility. Adam rarely talked about romance when it came to himself, but he occasionally let something slip when telling stories of his late friends. From these stories, she'd learned that Adam had an interest in finding a woman and settling down eventually, but for now he was focused on his work as a hero. And once he decided to settle… with his job, his appearance and his personality, he would have no trouble finding a wife.

"Lilith? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong! I'm just—I'm disappointed in myself, since I couldn't find anything myself," Lilith replied. "Anyway, it's getting late, and we shouldn't test these when it's dark, so why don't we go to an inn for the night?"

With that, they headed off to find accommodation. Lilith tried to distracting herself by discussing plans for tomorrow with Adam. This, of course, meant that she had to talk with him, meaning that it completely failed to distract her from the feelings that she definitely did _not_ have for him.

-ooo-

The next morning, they tested the charms while still in their room at the inn. Lilith filled a bucket with water—concentrated from the humid air using magic—and they took turns immersing their faces in the water. With the necklaces on, they were able to breathe with no problems at all. The water didn't enter their mouths or any other orifices, and their faces were completely dry when they removed them. They then tried immersing their sleeves in the water, and these were also dry when removed. The results of this initial test were promising, but it wasn't enough as the sea would present many more challenges.

They therefore decided to perform a field test. First, Adam had his armour painted a dull blue using paint that would last for some time in water: if the test proved successful, then their upcoming mission would require stealth. They then left the city of Selene and travelled east along the coast. After a quarter of an hour, they found a small, secluded beach.

Lilith and Adam began wading into the sea. The water was up to their knees, then their waists, then their shoulders, and yet they were not knocked over by the waves. In fact, they didn't even slow down. The water offered no resistance as they pushed forward, and buoyancy did not cause them to float off the sand beneath. Finally, they reached the point where only their heads were above the surface. They nodded to each other, then brought their heads down.

The power of Poseidon's charms held true. Lilith could breathe without any discomfort, and see for a considerable distance ahead. Vision wasn't perfect, however, due to the blue tint of the water and the occasional cloud of sand stirred up by a current.

"It works," Adam said, his voice not muffled in the slightest.

They walked forward some more, so that the water was now deeper than Adam was tall.

"Yeah… although, there is one more thing to test," Lilith said. "We can move around on the bottom like we're on land, but can we still swim? If we're limited to moving around in two dimensions, it'll be hard to fight against enemies that can move in three."

Lilith took a deep breath, then jumped off the sand and kicked her legs. Suddenly, she lost her bearings. She looked around in a panic and spotted Adam: he was at least ten paces behind her.

It wasn't long before Adam caught up. Like Lilith, he misjudged his speed and overshot her slightly, so he had to swim back. The two of them looked at each other, eyes wide in surprise, as they treaded water.

"Okay… that definitely answers my question," Lilith said. "In fact, now we have a new problem: we can swim _faster_ than we normally can, so we'll need to get used to this."

"Definitely."

The pair spent about an hour swimming around, chasing each other, sparring both on the seabed and while suspended in the water column. They had many embarrassing failures, but also learned many things about how these charms worked.

First, being underwater didn't affect any of Adam's magic, but it did affect Lilith's elemental spells, usually by reducing their range and altering their effects. Fire now produced a jet of superheated water, ice produced a crystalline pillar that struck its target with enough force to crack rock, lightning produced a spray of small bolts instead of a single large one. Water was the exception, having increased range and no change in effect, and it also used less demonic energy than normal.

Next, Lilith could use her succubus wings to essentially "fly" underwater, moving at an even faster speed than when swimming. This would be a major advantage, especially since she was much more skilled at flying than swimming. However, it was still more tiring than walking. She therefore decided to stay in her human disguise for now.

And when they began to feel thirsty from the exertion, they discovered that they could drink the seawater simply by making a gulping motion. There wasn't even the slightest taste of salt, though they had to be careful when they drank to avoid taking in sand as well. Similarly, they could eat the rations they were carrying and also any of the animals and plants they found, though they could only cook them via boiling.

Eventually, they reached the point where they could fight effectively while standing on the seabed, and also swim to quickly avoid an attack or reach a new location. They still weren't nearly as experienced in the water as even a sea monster child, but that was a gap they could never fully close. They decided to move on, hoping that any sea monsters they encountered would likewise be unfamiliar with fighting land-dwellers underwater.

They spent over thirty minutes walking. Along the way, they encountered a reef with a dazzling variety of life. There were colourful corals, which grew in shapes similar to plants yet were as hard as rock. Crabs, octopi and small fish hid among the corals, only emerging occasionally to feed. Larger fish swam over the reef, hunting for prey. And even these fled in terror when a shark approached. The sharks, meanwhile, kept a wary distance from the human and succubus, apparently respecting them as fellow apex predators.

As they walked, the sea grew deeper and deeper. They reached a depth where, if one were to build a ten-storey tower on the seabed, it would still be completely submerged. There were no more corals here, having been replaced by crusts of algae and beds of shellfish, and the light was much fainter. Despite this, they could still see as well as if they were on land, and they didn't feel the slightest hint of cold.

Suddenly, the nearby fish scattered and fled. It could have been another shark… but then Lilith sensed multiple sources of demonic energy. She looked at Adam and nodded, to confirm his suspicions. But neither of them drew their weapons. They wanted to try talking to these monsters, to see if they could be negotiated with. They did, however, remain ready to fight at a moment's notice.

A few tense moments passed, then four shapes appeared from over a hill. From the waist up they were humanoid, though with sharp teeth and blue scales, while from the waist down they had the tails of large fish: merfolk, in their seagoing form. Like the ones that had attacked the ship, these were armed with tridents.

The merfolk stopped when they saw Adam and Lilith. Surprise was clear on their faces.

"Humans? Down here?" muttered one merfolk. She seemed to be the leader of the group.

"We're not here to fight," Adam called out. "We're here to stop the raids on human shipping, and we'd prefer a more peaceful solution if possible."

The merfolk bared their teeth and raised their tridents.

There was only one way this situation might be salvaged. Lilith changed back to her succubus form, revealing her horns, wings and tail. The merfolk paused.

"I'm a monster, but I'm working with a human," Lilith said. "I know that it might be hard to go against what everyone is telling you—" _and what your instincts are demanding you do,_ "—but you don't have to kill them. It _is_ possible to live in peace with—"

The merfolk laughed. Their leader said, "Do you think we'll fall for your tricks, just because you've managed to beguile a hero? I don't know what sorceries you used to reach here, but we'll get that information out of you! Kill the hero, capture the succubus!"

Letting out harsh screams, the merfolk charged. Lilith flinched slightly: the merfolk's screams were even more powerful when transmitted through water!

"Lilith!"

Adam rushed forward. He slashed at one merfolk, staining the water crimson, then locked weapons with a second.

Lilith recovered and cast an ice spell, striking a third merfolk with enough force to shatter their bones. The fourth, the leader, dodged and thrust her trident at Lilith.

If she were limited to normal swimming, Lilith would have had no way of avoiding this attack. But she currently had a fragment of the sea goddess' power. She flapped her wings, propelling herself far out of reach. The merfolk tried to pursue, but in doing so she separated from the others… and thus removed Lilith's concern about accidentally hitting Adam. Lilith cast a lightning spell, creating a wide cone of bolts that left no room to dodge.

The merfolk screamed as she was hit by the lightning. She stopped moving and slowly sank down to the seabed. However, her demonic energy signature didn't completely disappear, showing that she was still alive.

Adam swum over, having finished off his second opponent. "What should we do now?" He asked.

"I can use telepathy to find out what she knows," Lilith said. "It's… something that I _really_ didn't want to do before, since I didn't want to relive the memories of other monsters. And after Thutmose did it to me, I had even less desire to do this, since I knew how painful it could be for the target… but right now, this is our only option."

"Are you sure about this?" Adam asked. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "If you're not ready for it, then we do have other options—"

"No, I'm ready," Lilith said. She gently—and reluctantly—pulled Adam's hand away. "But… thanks for the concern."

Taking a deep breath, Lilith placed her hands on the merfolk's head. She concentrated energy in her hands.

_Swimming through the kelp forest, chasing after her friends, with the loser having to then catch today's dinner._

_Swinging and thrusting with her trident, going through all the motions that her father showed her, repeating them until it required no conscious effort._

_Pulling the human off the boat, breaking his limbs to stop him struggling, then tearing into his flesh with her teeth. Her first human prey was… delicious. It was better than shark or salmon or oyster, it was a taste that she had to have more of._

Lilith screamed, pulling her hands away from the _monster_. Adam held onto her, told her to stop. But she calmed down, insisted that she had to do this, and resumed her investigation.

_She charged at the colossal monster, trying to pierce its eyes with her trident, but a massive tentacle slammed her into a boulder. As her consciousness faded, she saw one of her friends caught in another tentacle, slowly being pulled towards a gaping mouth._

_She woke up to found herself surrounded by many others, and not just limited to merfolk: the scyllas that were rivals to her race; the sea slimes that drifted around in the currents; even the tritonias and cancers that crawled around in the mud. All were injured and terrified, just like her. Then _it_ approached, and told the monsters of its plans…_

_She packed the human meat into a bag and carried it back to the fortress. Normally, she would have feasted on it with her friends, but now half of her friends were dead, and she was required to bring a quarter of her catch back for _it_ to consume._

The merfolk began to move again, so Lilith ended her telepathy and removed her hands. Adam then executed the merfolk with a single slash. Lilith felt some regret at the killing, since the merfolk had also been a victim… but then she remembered the humans the merfolk had killed, who numbered a dozen in total.

"What did you see?" Adam asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I found out where their base is," Lilith replied. "It's to the south, and not that far from here. And… I also found out who their leader is."

"Really? What was their race, their capabilities?"

"I'm not sure… her memories of this leader were distorted… out of fear, and hatred. I saw someone huge, with tentacles…"

"A scylla? A particularly old and experienced one, who'd grown to abnormal size?"

"Maybe… but from what I saw, and what she felt, this was more than that. They might be a race that neither of us has ever heard of."

Lilith and Adam looked at each other. They had started this mission knowing that it would involve unknown threats, but the new information was still worrying.

Adam suggested going back to ask the merchant for more of Poseidon's charms and to recruit reinforcements. Lilith pointed out that from what he'd said earlier, the merchant didn't _have_ any more charms, and any reinforcements could potentially discover that Lilith was a succubus and Adam a traitor to the Order.

Eventually, they decided to continue. They had grown considerably since their visit to the Ataraca Desert, having gained more experience, obtained useful magical artefacts and learned new spells. In particular, Adam's Evil Obliterating Incantation would be useful for dealing with a large group of monsters or a single powerful one. And if they had to flee, Lilith could fly faster than any of the sea monsters could swim, even while carrying Adam.

The pair headed deeper into the sea. The light faded rapidly, and without Poseidon's charms they wouldn't have been able to see even ten paces in front of them. The green algae was replaced by varieties that were red and brown. There were still many animals, but these were smaller than their shallow-water counterparts and had odd shapes. Overall, it looked like they were in an entirely different world, one that land-dwellers were forbidden to enter.

As they approached the fortress, they encountered more sea monsters. There were more merfolk and scyllas, but there were also new races. There was a group of tritonias, slug monsters covered in colourful frills and tentacles. There was a mershark, a larger and even more aggressive variant of merfolk. If any of these had detected Lilith or Adam, the pair would be forced to flee before they were surrounded by an army. However, they were able to avoid detection for two reasons.

First, Lilith had scanned the memories of one of the merfolk who'd used this fortress. As a result, she knew which routes were frequently used by monsters and which were not, so she and Adam could stick to the latter. This would have been hazardous under normal circumstances, since the _reason_ these routes weren't used often was because they had complex water currents. However, the power of the charms protected Lilith and Adam from this, so long as they kept at least one foot on the seabed.

Second, Adam suppressed his spirit energy as much as possible and stayed right next to Lilith at all times, so that her demonic energy masked his presence. This was a skill that Adam had learned during their journey out of the desert, and he was only able to learn it with the help of someone who knew how monsters perceived spirit energy. There were countless monsters of multiple races moving around here, so they wouldn't notice anything unusual about one more. Of course, this method of stealth didn't work against sight, hearing or any of the other conventional senses, and it only worked here because Lilith knew the routes that would let them keep their distance from monsters.

After almost an hour of carefully sneaking around, they spotted an orange glow in the distance. A few moments later, Lilith realised that it was the summit of an underwater mountain—an underwater _volcano_, rather. There were even more sea monsters here, streaming in and out of vents along the slopes of the volcano. Lilith had already seen the fortress in the merfolk's memories, but she was still awed by the sight.

"…It's like the fortress of a Demon Lord, straight from the legends," Adam said.

"Were any of those underwater?" Lilith asked.

"Actually, one or two of them were," Adam replied. "The legends didn't give any real explanation on _how_ the heroes were able to get to them… though I suppose that we now know how they managed that."

Lilith looked the massive fortress up and down. It had to contain hundreds, possibly more than a thousand monsters, including one that was powerful enough to keep the others in line. From the merfolk's memories, Lilith also knew that the internal layout differed from any terrestrial building, being designed for inhabitants capable of moving in three dimensions. And of course, the fortress was constructed in and around a volcano, so there was the additional danger—even if the probability was small—of an eruption.

But this wasn't the first time the two of them had braved great danger. The Pyramid in the desert was also a place holding immense and little-understood power, situated deep within a hostile environment. They had survived that, and become stronger for it, but had also failed in their original goal. They couldn't allow themselves to fail again.

"Adam… our goal is just to stop the attacks on the ships, right?" Lilith asked.

"That's right—we could hardly defeat all of the monsters here, after all," Adam said. "Even if we could bring in an army equipped with these charms, it would be a tough battle with no guarantee of victory."

"In that case… I might just have an idea."


	14. Chapter 14: Maelstrom

_AN: Thanks for all the reviews, MarioDS01! And in response to your Chapter 7 review: Lilith was disguising herself as a human (something first shown in Chapter 3), which is why the desert villagers weren't shocked by her. It's not an illusion but an actual physical change to her body._

* * *

Adam was surprised by the plan, but agreed with it. He said that in their current situation, outlandish plans were also the only ones with any chance of succeeding.

They were still faced with the question of how to get into the fortress. First, Adam applied a spell to them that would cover up their scents, to reduce their odds of being detected, then Lilith applied a spell to translate the speech of the sea monsters, to let them gather more information. They then circled the volcano until they found a vent that wasn't currently being used. After scanning their surroundings to confirm that there were no other monsters nearby, they entered the undersea fortress.

The vent continued for roughly fifty paces, eventually joining a corridor that had been carved by monsters rather than by nature. Small crystals were set into the walls, illuminating the corridor with a faint blue light.

Lilith and Adam walked along the corridor until they found a door on one side. They first checked to make sure that there was no one on the other side, then opened the door and entered the room. They didn't dare to stay in the corridor for too long, as it had nothing to conceal them from the fortress' residents.

The pair were now in a small room filled with various supplies, mainly weapons. The faint stench of human blood could be smelled here, suggesting that these weapons had been used fairly recently. There wasn't much they could do here: not with their current capabilities, at least. Lilith had heard of curses that could be put on items and cause anyone who touched that item to die after a few hours, with no noticeable symptoms until right before the moment of death. Such curses would have been useful here, for sabotaging the sea monsters, but neither Lilith nor Adam knew them.

Suddenly, Lilith felt the presence of a monster in the corridor. She gestured to Adam and the two of them took up positions on either side of the door, ready to kill the monster should they enter the room.

The monster moved down the corridor. When they were in front of the door, they paused, causing Lilith to tighten her grip on her spear. But then the monster changed their mind and moved on.

Once the monster was no longer nearby, Lilith and Adam relaxed. It felt silly to hide from a single monster. But they couldn't afford to let any monster raise the alarm: even the slightest mistake would see them surrounded and—well, Lilith didn't want to think about what would happen next.

They exited the room and turned left, going in the opposite direction as the previous monster.

For more than an hour, they snuck through the fortress, constantly stopping in empty rooms to hide. Despite the lack of any combat, it was still nerve-wracking, and Lilith felt as if she was aging a year for every minute she spent sneaking around.

Of course, they weren't able to hide forever. Eventually, a pair of scyllas did enter the room that Lilith and Adam were in: either because they were curious about the monster presence inside, or because they simply had their own business in the room. Lilith impaled one scylla through the neck, while Adam crushed the other's skull using the pommel of his sword. They hid the scyllas' corpses in some crates that were in the room, and Adam covered up the scent of blood, but the damage was done.

"Sooner or later, someone's going to wonder where these two are," Adam said. "Or if they're skilled at magic, they may notice the spell I used to hide them."

"Then we'll just have to pick up the pace," Lilith said.

As they left the room, Lilith took one last look at the crates with the scyllas' corpses. It had been a necessary action, but… when she saw the merfolk's memories on the way here, she was reminded of the fact that her fellow monsters were also people, despite their urge to kill and eat humans. They still loved, they still lost, they still did their best simply to survive…

_How many more will I kill? When will it end?_

-ooo-

As they headed deeper inside the fortress, the density of monsters increased, making it even more difficult to hide. The surroundings also became less utilitarian and more hospitable. One room was filled with stone beds, on which dozens of merfolk were sleeping. Another room was filled with tables, on which over twenty sea slimes were eating: mostly various seafoods, but some of the meat was definitely human.

However, two hours after entering the fortress, they still could not find the leader. The fortress was both enormous and didn't appear to have any central planning in the design. If Lilith had to describe the layout using an analogy, it would be: "as if someone had taken a few spiderwebs and spent several days tangling them together". It was only natural, since the builders were monsters of various races that didn't normally cooperate on anything, but that didn't change the fact that Lilith and Adam were lost.

Eventually, while they were hiding in an empty room, Adam said, "We can't keep this up, we'll have to try eavesdropping on a conversation."

"But that's—"

"Risky, I know. But right now, all our options have risks. This is the best option—arguably our _only_ option—to achieve our goal."

Lilith hesitated for a few seconds, but then agreed. He was right: from the moment they'd entered the sea—no, from the moment they'd started looking for artefacts to let them enter the sea, they had accepted these risks.

They continued moving around, trying to find a conversation that they could safely eavesdrop on. Even this was difficult, since they couldn't spend too long out in the corridors but also couldn't just enter an already-occupied room. Eventually, they found a room occupied by several monsters and with an empty room right next to it. They quietly entered the empty room, then Lilith pressed her ear against the wall and Adam stood guard by the door.

Lilith heard four distinct voices: merfolk, judging from the guttural tone.

"—it's your turn."

There was a sound of stone clattering against stone.

"Dammit, not again! Fine, I move three spaces and end on a stagnant water tile. I skip my next turn."

"Then it's my turn." There was another clatter of stone. "Okay, I move four spaces and end on the—yes! I end on the shipwreck tile and gain a treasure!"

"You keep getting lucky rolls… you're not cheating, are you?"

"Of course not! I'm just lucky. You should just learn to get better at this game."

"How dare you—"

"Calm down, this isn't something worth fighting over!" ordered the first merfolk. "Now, Petro, it's your turn."

There was silence for a few moments.

"Petro?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just… distracted."

"Is this about what happened to Isuri's group? I'm sorry, but you know how dangerous the sea is."

"Of course I know that!" Petro shouted. This was accompanied by a loud thump, suggesting that he had also slammed his hands against a table. "But I knew Isuri and the others too, and they wouldn't have died in a place like that!"

"What, do you think they were… set up to die?" asked the second merfolk, the one with the unlucky streak. "I hear that the boss does that sometimes, to get rid of anyone with rebellious thoughts. That's when he wants to be more subtle than just eating them…"

Lilith's heart skipped a beat. She'd finally found something.

"No… that makes sense, but I think it's something else," Petro said. "You remember those stories our parents used to tell us, about the _things_ that lurk in the deep sea?"

"What, the demons of chaos?"

"I heard of them as the 'gods of chaos'…" commented the third merfolk, the one with the lucky streak.

"Demons, gods, it doesn't matter because those are just a myth!" the first merfolk shouted. "There's no way they exist! We should be focusing on the things that actually matter, like that _thing_ that calls itself our boss."

There were shouts of agreement from the other merfolk.

"Just what _is_ that thing, anyway?" the second merfolk asked. "It looks kind of like a scylla, but a hundred times bigger and without the arms."

"How can you—right, you were brought in later, so you wouldn't know. The rest of us were in the first group he brought in, and he mentioned his race to us… apparently, he's a kraken."

"What? But I thought _those_ were just myths as well!"

"I did too, but it turns out they're real. Just extremely rare, and apparently they normally keep to the depths and don't move much, except when there's a Demon Lord around."

"Huh… wait, from the old stories, krakens are supposed to be able to pull down ships by themselves, aren't they?"

"That's right. I haven't seen our boss do that yet, but he should be strong enough for that."

"Then why does he need us for? Is he just too lazy to fight himself?"

"Maybe. He does spend all his time down near the bottom. And he just demands human meat, without bothering to go out to hunt for himself…"

Lilith continued listening for over ten minutes. However, the merfolk drifted away from the topic of their leader and didn't mention anything else that was relevant, focusing once more on their game.

The succubus and the human hero discussed this new information, in whispers that were just barely audible.

"A kraken… I've heard just one story about them," Adam said. "In the era of a past Demon Lord, one of them sunk half a fleet by themselves."

"That definitely isn't the kind of opponent we could fight head-on," Lilith said. "But that's why we're using this plan so that we don't have to do that."

Adam nodded. "And we now have an idea of the kraken's location. Let's go."

They left the room and began sneaking through the fortress again. This time, they went down whenever possible, heading towards the base of the volcano.

Eventually, they spotted a trio of cancers—monsters resembling giant crabs—who were carrying a large number of human corpses bundled together. To most monsters, this would be a delicious feast, yet the corpses were more or less intact: none of the cancers had dared to sample the meat.

_Either these three happen to be extremely disciplined… or they're afraid of what would happen if they stole any of it._

Lilith and Adam followed the cancers at a distance. Fortunately, cancers weren't a race of monsters that had particularly fine senses, so they didn't notice the pair tailing them.

As they followed the cancers, the corridor widened and eventually became a natural tunnel, complete with stalactites and stalagmites. This made it much easier for the pair to hide. However, the water also began to warm up, something that Lilith could feel even through the effects of Poseidon's charm.

Finally, the tunnel terminated in an enormous chamber. No—after getting closer, Lilith realised that the chamber had no ceiling. It wasn't a chamber, but the main vent of the volcano. And when she was close enough to see the people inside, Lilith came to an abrupt stop, as did Adam.

In the main vent were several sea monsters, one of which was absolutely gigantic. This monster had the basic form of a squid, with smooth skin and numerous sucker-lined tentacles, but Lilith had never seen any squid big enough to devour an entire house. The body of the monster was a deep purple that blended in with the dim water, while the tentacles were bone-white. Numerous patches covered the body, each glowing with eerie light. And unlike a normal squid, the mouth was located on the body and was filled with sharp teeth.

After staring at the kraken—for he could not be anything else—for several seconds, Lilith turned her attention to the other monsters in the vent. They were a mix of several races—presumably, each one was acting as a representative for their race—similar only in the looks of fear on their faces.

She then remembered that this was enemy territory and darted behind a stalagmite, then quickly looked around. Adam was nearby, also hidden behind a stalagmite, while the cancers had stopped near the end of the tunnel, presumably not wanting to interrupt the meeting. Fortunately, nobody seemed to have noticed the intruders.

"—do you want us to make another raid this week?" a scylla asked.

"Hmm… yes," the kraken replied, in a booming voice that resounded through the water and caused Lilith to tremble. "Since the last one failed, another is required to do sufficient damage to the humans."

"I understand," said a flow kelp, a type of plant monster specialised for the sea. "There won't be another failure."

"Oh, I do not blame any of you for that," the kraken said. "It was the first time that you worked together on a raid, so it is only natural that there were mistakes. But you must remember these mistakes and avoid repeating them… do I make myself clear?"

"Yes!" shouted all of the representatives.

"Good. Now, are there any more questions?"

"Y-Yes," a tritonia said. "If you don't mind me asking—"

"If it is an important question, then I do not," the kraken interrupted. "However, I _do_ mind when others waste my time with pointless qualifiers such as that."

"Th—Then, my question is: how long do you want us to keep up these raids for? Of course, I'm not disagreeing with your decision, we can keep this up for as long as you need, but I simply want to know how long it will be."

"Not long at all," the kraken said. "I have been reticent with my plans, but I suppose I ought to tell you, to assuage your fears. You will only need to perform twenty to thirty of these raids—the exact number will depend on your degree of success. It should take no more than a few months. Then, we can move on to the next stage of the plan."

"And… that is?"

The kraken used a tentacle to point down, towards the vent floor. "It is the reason I chose this location for our base. This volcano is dormant, but it still holds an immense quantity of energy. I have spent my time preparing a ritual to tap into that energy and direct it. Once it is complete, I will be able to create immense waves at will, and send them at the humans' port cities."

Lilith put a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp. The kraken's subordinates were similarly shocked by the revelation.

"And, I suspect, you are wondering why I recruited all of you," the kraken continued. "The answer to that is simple. The humans may be individually frail, but they are numerous and cunning, and could rebuild even after I damage their cities. To truly destroy them, it is necessary to both weaken them in advance and to invade their cities to finish off the survivors. And this body of mine, while powerful, is not suited for activities on land."

"I… understand…" the tritonia said. "It's a brilliant plan!"

The kraken laughed, a brutal sound that caused everyone present, even the distant Lilith and Adam, to cover their ears. "Indeed. And this plan will allow all of you to eat all of the meat that you desire. Speaking of which, _my_ meal has arrived. If none of you have any further questions, leave me."

The representatives left via various exits and the cancers entered the vent. They deposited the bundle of corpses near the kraken, then skittered away as fast as their legs could carry them.

The kraken coiled one tentacle around the bundle, then swam upwards. Though his movement was relatively slow, the sheer size of his body meant that he displaced an immense amount of water. Lilith had to cling to the stalagmite with all of her strength to avoid being sucked into the vent. After a few moments, Lilith heard a loud sound of flesh being bitten and ripped apart. It made her want to vomit… but those people were already dead, and the only thing she could do was to stop anyone else being taken.

Lilith and Adam left their hiding places and slowly crept towards the main vent. At the end of the tunnel, they stopped. The sound of the kraken eating was coming from a point far above: while it was too dark to see, it seemed to be a side room. However, they couldn't see any trace of the kraken, despite its bioluminescent body. That suggested that the kraken also wasn't in a position to see them.

Slowly, and with the willingness to flee at any time, they entered the vent and descended to the floor. This floor consisted of cooled magma and, despite appearing thick and solid, Lilith still felt a slight hint of fear when her feet touched it. It didn't help that the water here was like that of a hot spring. However, she suppressed that fear and leaned down to examine the floor.

There were lines and shapes carved into the floor, forming a massive ritual circle that extended from one wall of the vent to the other. It was extremely detailed, and would have taken many weeks of painstaking effort to carve, but as Lilith studied it, she realised that it wasn't all that complex. After a few minutes, she could roughly understand the purpose of each carving: the circles drew up energy from the volcano, the lines channelled this energy, intersections of lines stored energy, and the triangles discharged energy.

"Will the plan work?" Adam asked in a whisper.

"If I have the time to interfere with this, then it should work," Lilith replied. "The problem is that I won't have enough time. Once I start, there'll be a build-up of energy, and there's no way the kraken won't notice that."

Adam's face fell. He looked up at the kraken's location. "Hmm… rather than causing an eruption, could you use the energy in a more focused manner? For example, could you use it to cast a spell powerful enough to kill that kraken in a single blow?"

"That would take less time… but there would still be a massive build-up of energy, the kraken would still notice. And I wouldn't be able to aim very well when channelling that much power, not enough to hit a moving target."

The sound of eating stopped. Lilith and Adam tensed. The former spread her wings and grabbed Adam by the arm, ready to fly out of—

There was a long, rhythmic sound. After it was repeated a few times and the kraken still did not emerge from the side room, Lilith realised that it was the sound of snoring. She let go of Adam's arm.

"Well… it seems that he's the type who prefers to sleep after eating," Adam said.

"It's an incredible stroke of luck, and it's also the only chance we're going to get at this," Lilith said. "Okay… are you ready?"

Adam nodded. They waited a few more minutes, to make sure that this wasn't just a brief nap on the kraken's part. Then Lilith placed her hands on the ritual circle and began manipulating the flow of energy.

After a few seconds, Lilith made contact with the immense heat beneath the floor. The tremendous power reminded her of the sun, with its ability to warm the entire earth in a matter of hours, though this power had a clear physical presence.

As an experiment, Lilith drew up a tiny amount of energy—barely enough to boil a cupful of water—and sent it through the ritual circle. She followed the energy as it was channelled through the lines. Eventually, the energy was discharged, creating a brief and weak water current.

Lilith glanced upwards, but the kraken didn't seem to have noticed anything.

Returning to her work, Lilith picked up a stone and began making modifications to the carvings, adding new lines and shapes. Her modifications were crude and wouldn't last for more than a few uses of the ritual circle, but she only needed them to work once.

Finally, Lilith took out the diamond—the one she'd been gifted by Thutmose, back in the desert. She'd been storing demonic energy in it every day until it was filled to maximum capacity. She pressed the diamond to the ritual circle. This was the point of no return: once she began this process, it would be impossible to safely stop it.

Lilith took a deep breath, then injected all of the demonic energy from the diamond into the ritual circle. The circle drew up volcanic energy at a tremendous rate, causing the floor to heat up and vibrate.

"Who dares enter my domain!?"

The kraken's enraged shout was so loud that it stunned Lilith and Adam. They recovered after a few seconds, but that was enough time for the kraken to emerge from his room and descend towards them. The tunnel they had entered from, and all of the other exits to the vent, were now blocked.

"Die!"

Countless tentacles shot towards Lilith and Adam, leaving no room to escape. But before Lilith could lament her death, something struck the kraken, knocking him upwards. Lilith spotted a human figure pressed against the kraken, looking tiny in comparison… and then she noticed that Adam was no longer next to her.

_Adam! But—how can he possibly be—!?_

As Adam struggled with the kraken, Lilith sensed an overpowering aura of spirit energy from him. If the usual Adam was a small campfire, then the current him was a raging wildfire.

_That energy—he must be using his diamond, the energy he stored in it—but if he channels all of that through his body, then—!_

Adam slammed the kraken against a wall of the vent, cracking it and filling the water with rock fragments. The cracks rapidly began to spread.

"I will not be bested by a single human!" the kraken roared.

Suddenly, the kraken and Adam were engulfed in a black cloud. Lilith quickly cast a water spell at them, washing away the cloud, only to see that Adam was being constricted by the kraken's tentacles.

_I have to do something!_

Lilith placed a hand on the vent floor. Although it was now hot enough to burn her flesh, she didn't pull her hand away until she'd absorbed a considerable quantity of energy. She then channelled all of that energy into a single massive fire spell. A jet of superheated water shot from her hand and struck the kraken near his eye, causing him to scream and release Adam.

Flapping her wings, Lilith flew up and caught Adam. Her partner was barely moving: whether it was due to injuries from the battle or the backlash of channelling so much energy, she couldn't tell. He was still breathing, but there was no telling how long he would last without medical care.

Up above, the wall of the main vent collapsed, dropping huge chunks of rock. Lilith flew into the same tunnel she'd entered from. Roaring with pain, the kraken followed them—only to scrape against the walls when the tunnel narrowed to a corridor. The colossal monster struggled, trying to force his way through, but his efforts only caused the corridor to cave in, separating him from his quarry.

But there was no time to breathe a sigh of relief. The tremors were increasing in strength, showing that the fortress wouldn't last much longer.

Still carrying Adam, Lilith flew through the corridors as fast as she dared. There were countless sea monsters as well, and whenever she passed them, Lilith shouted at them to flee since the volcano was erupting. She didn't put any thought into these warnings, she just did them out of instinct.

Of course, the labyrinthine structure of the fortress meant that Lilith wouldn't have been able to escape on her own, not when she was moving too fast to see where she was going. However, the sea monsters did know the locations of the exits, so Lilith simply went in the same direction as them.

After a minute or two—though it felt like one or two hours—Lilith finally made it out of the volcano fortress. She tried to keep flying, to put as much distance between her and the impending unnatural disaster as possible. But eventually her wings gave out and she slowed to a stop, then sank down to the seabed. She kept a firm grasp on Adam, though, not wanting to let him go no matter how much her arms screamed in pain.

As the tremors intensified, hundreds of sea monsters flooded out of the fortress. However, none of them made any attempt to attack Lilith or Adam. For these few moments, they were all united by fear and fatigue.

Finally, the volcano erupted. Great clouds of steam billowed from the main vent and the numerous smaller ones, accompanied by an orange glow that contrasted with the darkness of the water. Small chunks of black rock—presumably the cooled magma—drifted down from the steam clouds. And even at this distance, Lilith felt the heat on her skin.

Suddenly, a large tentacle emerged from one of the vents. Lilith's heart was gripped by despair—after all that effort, their target was still alive!?—only for the tentacle to be pushed out by steam and fall down, with nothing attached to it. More tentacles followed, along with chunks of charred flesh. This was all that remained of the kraken.

The kraken had been enormous, giving him formidable physical might… and it must have _also_ prevented him from using most of the tunnels and corridors in the fortress. To enter and leave the fortress, he must have normally used the main vent… which had collapsed in the fighting, leaving him with no way out.

Lilith laughed. She was still close to a volcanic eruption, and still surrounded by human-eating monsters who had no reason to trust a succubus. But after hours of sneaking around follow by a brief but intense battle, she had to do _something_ to relieve the stress.

And she was tired, too. Tired enough that, despite her wishes, she let go of Adam. Tired enough that her eyes closed and she drifted into unconsciousness.

-ooo-

Surrounded by darkness, Lilith felt the aches and pains in her body fade away.

She heard a gentle, soothing voice. It reminded her of her mother, when she tucked her into bed and sang her to sleep. But it couldn't be… her mother was a true monster, someone who saw humans as nothing but prey. Lilith couldn't let herself be comforted by her.

_Lilith… can you hear me?_

She heard the voice again. It was coming… from just above her chest, where the charm was.

_Lilith… I want to thank you for what you've done today. I regret the deaths you caused… but for someone in your position, I know that you had no other option. And I am hardly in a position to criticise anyone when it comes to that…_

_But that's not the important thing. The important thing is that you saved many today, freed them from their slavery. For that, you have brought some peace to the sea… and if I have something to say about it, then this peace will be even greater than you imagined._

Lilith tried to open her mouth, to ask this mysterious voice who she was.

_My name? Well… you'll learn that soon enough. But before I go, there's one thing you need to know._

_As a monster who has fought off the Chief God's decree, and who has learned how to coexist with humans…_

_You have my full support._

-ooo-

The calls of seabirds. The smell of salt. The roughness of sand and the warmth of the sun on her skin.

Lilith opened her eyes and slowly pulled herself into a sitting position.

She was on the beach of an island, a small one dotted with palm trees. The burn on her hand was no longer present. Adam was next to her, and she hurried to his side to check his condition. He was sleeping peacefully and seemed to have no injuries of any kind.

_That's impossible… if he took in all the energy stored in his diamond, and used it to strengthen his body to its limits, then it would definitely leave him with torn muscles and broken bones. And that's not even counting the attacks he took from the kraken… but he's perfectly fine?_

Lilith heard feet crunching on sand. She turned around to thank her rescuer—and when she saw who he was, immediately began readying a spell.

"Wait!" the merfolk said, holding up his hands. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Lilith hesitated. She recognised the voice: it was one of the merfolk she'd eavesdropped on in the volcano.

She stood up and face the merfolk, eye-to-eye. She noted that he didn't have any weapons. And while he was still physically stronger than her, enough to kill her with just his bare hands… she didn't feel any hostility from him.

"I'm guessing that you want an explanation?" the merfolk said. "Oh, and if you're wondering, it's just the three of us here at the moment. My friends, and a few of the others who escaped with us, are out gathering food. I thought it would be less threatening if it was just me here when you woke up."

"Actually… I think that I owe you an explanation," Lilith said. "It was your base that we destroyed."

"Then I'd like to say two things. First, my name is Milus," the merfolk said. "And second, I can't thank you _enough_ for doing that."

Lilith blinked, but then she remembered everything that she'd seen during her time underwater.

"If you'd spent even a minute in that damned place, then you'd know that we never wanted to be there," Milus continued. "Even under normal circumstances, none of us would want to live in a place that's cold, dark and could potentially explode… and that _thing_ made it a hundred times worse. He brought us there by force, killing anyone who disagreed, made us serve him like slaves and give him a quarter of our—well, our catch, and whenever anyone even thought of rebelling, he ate _them_ in front of us as an example. On behalf of my friends, and everyone else who suffered under him, I thank you."

Lilith averted her gaze. "I guess you could say that we saved you … but that wasn't really our goal. Our main goal was to stop the attacks on the humans."

"Really? Then why did you tell us to evacuate when you escaping?" Milus pointed out.

"It was—I didn't think about that when I did it—"

"Seems like a waste of energy, and you were clearly already tired back then—"

"I killed other monsters!" Lilith shouted. "Both down there, and lots of times before! Some of them might have been your friends!"

These were words that Lilith shouldn't have said. They could have easily angered the merfolk into attacking her. But she had to say them, she couldn't keep them suppressed any longer.

After a pause, Milus said, "And I've killed other monsters, too. For territory, for self-defence, to prove a point… and I suspect that if we compared our histories, you'd have far better reasons than I do."

"That's… it doesn't change a thing," Lilith insisted. "It doesn't change the fact that I've killed so many."

"Maybe it doesn't," Milus said. "But let me ask you one question: do you think you could ever kill _him?_"

The merfolk gestured towards Adam. Lilith looked at her partner and… could not find a single scenario where she would ever willingly do so. No matter what, if she were ever in a situation where Adam was in danger, she would throw away her own life if it even slightly improved his chances of survival.

"Just like I thought," Milus said, smiling. "Though I do need to know: how do you manage? All of us feel the urge to kill humans, even right now I think that I should take advantage of his weakness to rip his throat out—"

Lilith began readying a spell again. She didn't care what the odds were, she would _not_ let anyone—

"—yet you don't seem to feel that at all. Why? Even if it's different for you, you should still feel the urge."

Lilith stopped her casting. She took a few breaths to calm herself down.

Then, for the first time ever, she told another monster her story.

Once the explanation was over, Milus shook his head. "It sounds unbelievable, Lilith. If I heard this in any other situation, I'd think it was stupid… but I saw you risk your life to save him from the volcano. To think that it's possible for us to suppress our urges…"

Lilith sighed. An immense weight had now been lifted off her chest. "I should thank you as well. For bringing us here, and healing us."

"Hold on a moment," Milus said. "My friends and I did bring you here, but we didn't do anything to heal you. We don't know that kind of magic. When we were carrying you up to the surface, your wounds healed before our eyes."

"What!? How is that possible?"

In response, Milus simply pointed at Lilith's chest: at the charm hanging over it.

"This charm… it let Adam and me survive in the sea… and it has the power of Poseidon, the sea goddess."

"We know her as the Blue Mother," Milus said. "She's our goddess, even more so than she is for any of the humans. After all, we live our entire lives in the sea. We pray to her for favourable currents, for good catches, and for healthy children."

"But… no offence, but that doesn't make any sense," Lilith said. "The humans pray to Poseidon to be protected from the dangers of the sea… including you. One side has to be wrong about what she does."

"That's true, and until recently, I thought it was the humans," Milus said. "But… well, back when we were near the volcano, we were all discussing what to do with you. It was a confusing situation: you'd saved us from that kraken, but one of you was a human hero. Some said that it would best to kill and eat you—no one on land would ever know, after all—but then we heard _her_ voice."

Lilith remembered that strange voice she'd heard. Before, it was easy to dismiss as a dream, but now…

"She said that monsters and humans had been dying in her sea, polluting her water with blood, for too long," Milus said. "She said that we should take this incident as a sign to reassess ourselves. After that… no one could agree with killing you. We broke up into a hundred different groups and went in different directions. My group decided to bring you to the surface."

Lilith spent a few moments taking this all in. She eventually said, "Then, what have you decided to do now?"

"We're definitely changing the way we live," Milus said. "First, there was _one_ benefit to being enslaved by that thing. It taught us how to work together despite our differences. Most of the other groups who left were mixes of different races. That's something you would never see before. And second… we're going to try acting like you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, we're going to try and stop attacking humans," Milus said, lifting his chin in a confident manner. "You two have shown us that something like that is possible. And while I can only speak for my own group, I think some of the others might do that as well. At least, there shouldn't be nearly as many raids on the humans."

Lilith felt her legs grow weak. She had spent so long, thinking that she was the only monster who refused to attack humans, thinking that she was alone. But now… now she had allies.

And if that voice was telling the truth… then her allies included someone in a very high position.


	15. Chapter 15: Reflection

_AN: I can't believe it took me this long to finish this chapter, sorry for the delay. Fortunately, I'm less busy now and should be able to get the next chapter out sooner._

* * *

Adam pulled on the oar one more time, bringing the boat onto the edge of the beach. He and Lilith climbed out and stretched their limbs.

"Ahhh… It's nice to be back on land again," Adam said.

"Save that for when we're a bit further away from the water," Lilith said, though she also sounded relieved.

Adam looked back towards the sea. From this distance, it wasn't possible to see that small island. And because of that, a small part of him tried to dismiss the events on that island as some bizarre dream.

But it couldn't simply be a dream. None of Adam's dreams had ever been that vivid. And Lilith had been talking about those events as well, so unless Adam was somehow _still_ dreaming…

_It has to be real… but it's still unbelievable. We're miraculously saved from the depths by a group of monsters, who are now going to give up on attacking humans? And other groups could potentially be doing the same thing? They give us a boat to get back to the mainland? And… and this is all with the backing of a goddess?_

Adam and Lilith walked westward along the beach, heading back to the port of Selene to rest and resupply. During the trip, Adam continued to be lost in his own thoughts.

_Alright, I need to start somewhere. First, the sea monsters having a change of heart. That at least is possible, since Lilith could do it. A large number of them doing that at the same time… it's not fundamentally impossible, given that they had us as an example, and were grateful to us for saving them. Not all of them would do it… monsters consist of many kinds of people, just like humans. But it's a start towards stopping the conflict between humans and monsters._

_That point is settled. Now, on to the real issue…_

Adam looked towards the sea. It was relatively peaceful at the moment, with small waves lapping against the sand, and flocks of birds diving in to catch fish.

_Poseidon, the goddess of the sea… I've known of her since I was a child—the nuns in charge made sure that we knew the names of all the main gods—but I've never spent much time thinking about her. In hindsight, that was foolish of me: the sea comprises more of the world than land, and those who work and live in it have long known of its importance._

_But according to everything I was taught, Poseidon should be allied with the Chief God. She should be a goddess who protects humanity against the hazards of the sea, including sea monsters… yet, from what I heard yesterday, the sea monsters themselves have the opposite view of her._

No matter how much he puzzled over the matter, Adam couldn't think of any answers. He therefore decided to get a second opinion.

"Lilith, just what do you think of—of everything that happened yesterday, under the sea and on the island?"

The succubus slowed in her tracks for a moment. She lifted a hand to her chin in thought. "Well… I know that it all seems incredible. When I woke up this morning, I wondered if it was all some weird dream. But I was taught by—I know some techniques that let me tell if I'm in a dream or not. It's the same principles behind knowing if you're in an illusion or not. And I'm certain that this is reality."

"I've figured that out as well," Adam said. "I can accept that there are more monsters who have changed their ways. But… there's still the question of the _goddess_ who supposedly helped us."

Lilith suddenly glanced at the sky. "That's… it's true that's something we need to talk about, but should we really be doing that… out in the open?"

"I don't think that's a problem," Adam said, though he couldn't help but glance at the sky himself. "If it was, then I would have been struck by lightning the moment I agreed to work with you. While my current actions… don't fully agree with the principles of the Chief God, it seems that she isn't making any attempt to observe us."

In hindsight, that made sense. Followers of the Order were told that the Chief God was always watching over them… but if that was the case, why did she allow so many humans to commit sins? Did she believe that humans should have free will, even if that led to considerable suffering? Or did she not, in fact, have the power to watch over every human at once?

"I understand that… but I still feel a little afraid," Lilith said. "Anyway, I've been wondering if this is some kind of trick. Not by Poseidon herself… I can't imagine why she would need to us as pawns, and if she wanted us dead, she could have easily killed us when we were down there. I've been wondering if someone else is pretending to be Poseidon, trying to trick us into doing something for them."

"That explanation makes sense," Adam said. "Though… the sea monsters claimed that Poseidon had spoken to them as well. And it wasn't just one or two, every one of the monsters near the volcano heard the same words. There's a saying I've heard: a lie is ideally told to as few people as possible; if many people know about it, they can talk to each other and discover the lie."

Lilith nodded. "Everything suggests that it was really Poseidon. But… one of the gods helping out monsters? And on that topic, until yesterday I didn't know that there _were_ monsters who worshipped a god."

"I didn't as well… it seems we still have a lot to learn," Adam said.

They reached the top of a hill and the city of Selene became visible in the distance. It would take less than an hour to get there.

Adam's hand drifted to his hip, hovering around the empty scabbard on his belt. Back in the undersea fortress, he'd dropped his sword due to the kraken's attack, and Lilith didn't have time to retrieve it when she was carrying him out of there. And it would have been useless even if she had retrieved it: one of Adam's last memories was the sword bending halfway along its length, a natural consequence after it was used against such a massive opponent.

_It's just a weapon, one that can be replaced… but I still miss its weight hanging by my side._

Adam had received the sword at the end of his training: it was the proof that he was recognised as a full-fledged hero. For five years, it had served him well, bringing an end to the lives of many monsters and the occasional human bandit. It had also been the subject of an occasional joke from his friends, who wondered if he was using it to compensate for something. Essentially, it had been one of the few remnants of his former life… and now it was gone.

_But I can't let myself get lost in sentiment. I had my armour for just as long, and I lost that in the desert, but I replaced that and moved on._

-ooo-

When they arrived in Selene, they immediately noticed that the city was different than before. The people no longer looked as if they were carrying burdens everywhere, and moved around with a distinctive energy. There was much more noise than before: while this would normally be irritating to Adam, now the noise felt pleasing, as it signalled an increase in activity.

Adam gaped at the sight. "This is…"

"…too fast?"

It had been less than two days since the death of the kraken and the scattering of the sea monsters: they had spent most of one day in the fortress, woken up on the island on the second day, and returned to the mainland today. But things were already improving? Adam was again starting to wonder if this was all just a dream.

Naturally, the two of them investigated this change. They roamed the streets, watching the flow of activity, eavesdropping on passers-by, conversing with anyone who appeared to be in a talkative mood. They didn't split up for this: after the shock of recent events, they felt a desire to stay close together.

There was one merchant who was selling fishing supplies along a major street. His business was currently booming, such that Adam and Lilith needed to wait for several customers to leave before they talked to him.

"Oh, I can barely believe it myself, but it's true!" the merchant said. "Yesterday, there wasn't a single monster attack, near the city or on any of the ships docking here! Thanks to that, there's a lot more fishermen going out today, and I'm making a ton of money!"

Next, there were the inns near the docks. These were packed with customers, to the point that a couple actually had queues outside the door. And inside, every single table and chair was occupied.

"Yesterday?" said one of the fishermen who was currently getting drunk in one inn. "Heh, there wasn't just no monsters yesterday! The weather was perfect everywhere—from the west all the way to the east end of the coast, there wasn't a single storm, or even a rough wave, anywhere! And we brought in a bigger catch than I've ever seen in my life! I'm taking this chance to relax, but once my break ends, I'll be going out on another trip!"

After that, they moved on to the docks. Even though there was considerable activity here on their last visit, there was several times as much now, suggesting that the previous state had actually been a _slow_ day. There were so many people moving around that Adam and Lilith had to tread carefully to avoid getting in anyone's way.

"Yeah, things have definitely changed for the better," said one of the captains, who was currently overseeing the loading of goods onto a ship. "I've been working on the sea for almost thirty years, and I've never seen conditions this good. I can only guess that our prayers have finally been answered… now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure these idiots don't somehow sink the ship."

After an hour of investigating the city, the pair went to the market, bought lunch and sat down to eat. At least, they _tried_ to eat: after everything they'd seen today, food was the last thing on their minds.

"Lilith?"

"…Yes?"

"I now have absolutely no doubt that we were just helped by a god."

-ooo-

After lunch, Adam decided to try replacing his sword. He told Lilith that she could go off on her own if she wished, but she decided to accompany him.

The first blacksmith's they visited was a small shop along the waterfront. Above the door hung a sign saying "Ferran's Tools and Weapons". Inside, the shop was packed almost to the ceiling with countless metal objects, weapons and armour among them. Behind the counter, was a middle-aged woman in a faded brown dress and apron. Her skin was wrinkled from a long life of work and her hair, aside from a few remaining red strands, had gone grey.

When Adam and Lilith entered the shop, the blacksmith—presumably Ferran—looked up. She raised one eyebrow.

"You—where'd you get that armour?"

Adam was surprised. He'd met many people who preferred to skip the pleasantries and focus on business, but never someone this… confrontational.

"This is… I found it in an ancient ruin," Adam said, telling a limited form of the truth. "At any rate, I'm here because I recently lost my sword and require a new one."

"Hmm." The blacksmith looked Adam up and down, then repeated the process to Lilith. She then picked up an arming sword from a shelf and passed it to Adam. "Try this one, give it a few swings."

Adam moved to the most spacious area of the shop—though it would be more accurate to describe it as the least cramped. He pictured a monster charging at him, then executed a few practice swings, any one of which would be lethal. He then handed the sword back.

"I've got a good idea of your level now," Ferran said. "Well, if you're just looking for something to chop up monsters, then the swords I have here should do. But for someone as experienced as you, I'd say you need something better."

"I would be fine with any good-quality sword—"

"You might be fine with that now, but when you're up against a tough monster and your sword breaks on their hide, you'd be cursing the blacksmith who sold you the sword," Ferran said. "And I haven't stayed in the business by getting my customers killed. No, you need a dwarf-made weapon."

Adam shared a glance with Lilith. They both knew of the dwarves' reputation for being master blacksmiths—and in his youth, Adam had once wished to own a dwarven weapon—but quality dwarven work could be very expensive. Even with the gems they'd received from Thutmose, a dwarven sword could cost a significant fraction of their savings.

_But on the other hand, she has a point. A good sword could very well save my life one day, and that's worth more than any amount of money._

"That sounds like a good idea… do you have anyone you'd like to recommend?" Adam asked.

"There's a dwarf city near here, Vaseram," Ferran said. "It's about three days walk, if you leave from the north gate and follow the road. They send a group down here to trade every couple of months, but the last visit was two weeks ago, it'd be faster to go there yourself."

_Vaseram… if I remember correctly, that's where Balin, the dwarf on the ship, was from. He did say that he'd repay me if I ever came to that city… though I didn't expect it to be this soon._

"I see, thank you," Adam said.

With that, they left Ferran's shop.

They visited several more blacksmiths. Most of these had swords that were of similar quality to Ferran's, a few had better-quality ones. Adam bought one sword, and under normal circumstances he would have been satisfied with this.

However, Ferran's words stuck in Adam's head. He wasn't just fighting average monsters these days, he was now facing the kinds of monsters only spoken of in legends. An average sword wouldn't last against such opponents: it would snap or bend after a few blows. Nor would it last if he planned on using it against powerful humans, such as his fellow—

_No._ Adam stopped in his tracks. _I couldn't—no, I have to face the possibility. I can't run from reality._

Adam recalled the stories he'd heard of traitor heroes, those who'd listened to the offers made by particularly cunning monsters. These traitors were portrayed as fools who'd betrayed their species in exchange for mere wealth or power, not realising that they would inevitably be betrayed in turn by the very monsters they'd chosen to serve. Among the Order, they were held in even greater contempt than monsters.

_If anyone were to learn of us… we would be hunted relentlessly, never allowed to rest no matter how far we fled. We would be killed sooner or later. Our only option would be to try to convince the person who discovered us, before they could tell anyone else. If that didn't work…_

"Adam? Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Adam replied instinctively. He continued walking. "I was just… wondering about what I should do. From what we've heard, I think that my best option would be a dwarven sword."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Lilith said. She cupped her chin. "I've never been to a dwarf city before… it should be an interesting experience."

"Indeed. But after that, where do you think we should go next?" Adam asked.

"Well, it depends on how things go in Vaseram," Lilith said. "Once we're done there, we should probably go to the east, to investigate these strange massacres that are going on. There's nothing much to the west of that city, while to the north is—"

"Lescatie."

Just saying the word caused Lilith to shiver. It was no surprise: the city-state of Lescatie was one of the primary bastions of the Order. It had the second-strongest military of all the human nations, and was unrivalled in the number of heroes it produced. It was said that no monster had ever come close enough to even touch the city's outer wall, and while that was an obvious exaggeration, it wasn't too far from the truth. For a monster like Lilith, it had to be a terrifying place, just like Royal Makai was for humans.

_No… with my current situation, it would be just as dangerous for me to go there. There's a good chance that someone there would be able to spot a succubus in disguise, or—or notice that I've been working with a monster for a long time._

The two of them searched for an inn where they could rest. There was less activity now, due to the hot afternoon sun, but the streets were still fairly busy.

_If it comes to it, I need to be able to fight other members of—members of the Order. It won't be easy, but… if Lilith can fight other monsters, then—_

_No, I can't lie to myself. The monsters Lilith fights are those that prey on humans. If any humans were to discover us, they would hate and fear us for perfectly good reasons. If I fought back against them… it would be nothing more than self-preservation._

Adam looked at the sky. It was clear and bright, but it didn't match his state of mind at all.

_And the two of us are being supported by Poseidon as well… just what does this all mean? What are the gods' intentions for us, humans and monsters alike? Just what are we supposed to do?_

-ooo-

The next day, they went to the north gate, bought two horses and travelling supplies, then left Selene.

Initially, they saw plenty of other people, mainly merchants travelling to and from the city. They passed two crossroads on this day.

The next day, they only encountered one other group. These were travellers rather than merchants, and they were heading to Selene because they wished to make it their new home. They had passed by Vaseram earlier, and told Adam and Lilith to look forward to the city as it was a magnificent experience.

On the morning of the third day, they were ambushed by a group of monsters: orcs, to be specific. These were monsters with the heads and curly tails of pigs. They were slow but extremely strong, and their thick layers of fat and muscle made them difficult for inexperienced fighters to kill. However, to the current Adam and Lilith, they didn't pose the slightest threat.

On the evening of the third day, they arrived at a large mountain. From a distance, it didn't seem to have anything out of the ordinary, but as they approached, they spotted the cave entrance at the base. Small figures stood on either side of the entrance. After getting closer still, they could see that these figures were short, hairy, and equipped with axes and heavy plate armour.

As Adam and Lilith approached, the dwarf guards called out, "Halt! What is your business in Vaseram?"

Adam dismounted his horse. "I am Hero Adam, from the human town of Merith in the west. I recently lost my sword, and although I bought a replacement—" Adam gestured at the sword hanging from his hip, "—I'm looking for a better one. I've heard that the finest swords are made by the dwarves, and so I've come here. I swear on the name of the—of the Chief God that I and my partner will bring no harm to this city."

The dwarves nodded. "Very well, you may enter. And your horses will be cared for while you are here."

Lilith dismounted as well, and she and Adam followed the dwarf guards inside the cave. Near the entrance was a stable, which already had several horses that presumably belonged to other visitors. They left their horses here, then one of the guards led the pair deeper into the cave.

They walked for several minutes. The environment was superficially similar to the interior of the undersea volcano—a narrow tunnel illuminated by crystals—but the ambience was different as the crystals here gave off a dim red light, rather than blue.

Finally, they arrived at the city proper. The tunnel widened into a massive chamber, big enough that one could probably fit a dozen castles inside. There were numerous rows of buildings, each several storeys tall and constructed from stone blocks of various colours, ranging from red and brown through to grey and black. An enormous red crystal was set into the ceiling of the chamber, resembling a miniature sun.

"Welcome to Vaseram," the dwarf guard said proudly. "Hope you enjoy your visit."


	16. Chapter 16: Those Who Dug Deep

_AN: Sorry for another delay. To tell the truth, this whole series of events (Adam getting a new sword from the dwarves) was originally planned to be just one chapter. But as I wrote, I found new things that I felt had to be added, and it ended up growing into multiple chapters._

_Also, as far as I know, there aren't any metals mentioned in MGE other than Demon Realm Silver, so I used some common fantasy metals here._

* * *

The dwarf guard told them of some good inns where they could stay, and also some excellent blacksmiths to buy a sword from. It was a considerable amount of information, taking roughly fifteen seconds to say in full. Adam was nevertheless able to remember it all: part of his duty as a hero required him to gather information on the locations and activities of monsters. Even after his recent… shift in direction, that skill remained useful. The guard then left to return to his post.

Adam and Lilith didn't feel any particular need to rest, so they decided to visit the blacksmiths first.

They went into the city. The first thing they noticed was that everything was cramped: the streets were just wide enough to allow four or five people to move abreast, and the doors to the buildings were just tall enough to let a human or succubus pass through. There was more than enough light to see, thanks to the enormous crystal in the ceiling, but the city was still much dimmer than the world outside the cave. Finally, there were many dwarves milling about in the streets, even though nightfall was approaching… though to a race that lived underground, the daily cycle of the surface probably wasn't important.

That said, the locals were friendly. Adam and Lilith talked to a few of them along the way.

"Oh, a hero? We don't see many of you around here," said one dwarf who they passed on the street. "There's not much need for you around here, but I hope you enjoy your visit."

"Here to buy some of our famous equipment?" said a dwarf running a food stall. "While you're at it, why not try some of our cuisine? We might not be known as much for it, but we have quite a lot of unique dishes to offer."

The food at the stall did look interesting, so Adam and Lilith both bought meals that they could eat as they walked. The human bought something that looked and tasted like a beef sandwich, but which was entirely composed of ingredients made from various kinds of fungi. The succubus bought a similar sandwich that actually did contain meat, except that this was the meat of a kind of cave cricket. After that, they decided to ask for more directions, just to make sure that they didn't get lost in this strange city.

"If you're looking for Smith Herrard, he's just around the corner there," said the dwarf that the pair asked for directions. "Just a word of warning, he charges high prices for his work. But it's fine work, I can promise you that. If you can afford it, then it will never let you down in battle."

Eventually, they arrived at the first blacksmith. They found a building with the sign "Herrard's Weapons" hanging in front. They stepped through the door, bowing their heads slightly to avoid hitting them on the low doorframe.

Herrard was slightly short for a dwarf, though he was very heavily muscled. He was bald but had a thick red beard, and wore dark grey clothing. He was carrying a large hammer in one hand, but set it down when he saw that he had customers.

"Greetings," Herrard said, walking around a counter and approaching the pair. "It's not often that I get a hero as a customer, but I'm guessing you're looking for a better sword?"

"That's right," Adam replied.

Adam drew his sword and allowed Herrard to inspect it. The dwarf grasped the sword and looked at it with a keen eye.

"It's new… you bought this recently?" Herrard asked.

"Yes—I'd lost my previous sword in battle, and it had also been heavily damaged during that battle," Adam explained. "I bought this as a temporary replacement, but I'm looking for something sturdier."

"And so you came here," Herrard said. He checked the balance of the sword by holding it on a single finger. "Is this sword similar to your old one?"

"It is. Even if it's temporary, I still needed something I could use properly. And that proved to be a good decision, since my partner and I ran into monsters along the way here."

"Mmm. Monsters are definitely acting up a lot recently. It's almost like there's a new Demon Lord around…"

Herrard tested the flex of the sword by pressing on the tip with his finger. He then performed a few experimental slashes and thrusts. Due to his short stature, the sword was almost as long as he was tall, yet he still handled it without any visible effort. Finally, he handed it back to Adam.

"Alright, I now have a good idea of what you need," Herrard said. "And… this might be rude to bring up, but how much are you willing to spend?"

Adam pulled out a pouch filled with Thutmose's gemstones. It was still mostly full, as they hadn't needed to spend much of it so far.

"Alright, that's enough to afford one of my best swords," Herrard said.

One by one, Herrard brought out his swords. Each was similar in size and shape to Adam's, but they had their own individual quirks: one was slightly lighter and could be used for quick slashes, while another was slightly longer and would grant Adam more reach. However, all of them were excellent swords. Whenever Adam tested one, it felt like an extension of his body… just like his original sword.

_The reputation of the dwarven smiths is no exaggeration,_ Adam thought. _They're all so good that it's actually hard for me to decide on any particular one._

_Still, I have to make a decision eventually. I need to think carefully: what kinds of opponents am I likely to face next? What kind of sword would allow me to stand a chance against them?_

Adam recalled his battle against the kraken. At the time, he'd been strengthened by an incredible amount of accumulated energy, enough to force back even that colossal monster… but his sword hadn't been up to the task. With every blow, it had chipped and bent. The kraken had gained the upper hand by blinding Adam with ink, but regardless of the method, the hero would have been overpowered eventually.

Then Adam's imagination conjured up a different scene: himself facing off against another figure in plate armour. Both wielded swords forged by masters, and they brought their weapons together again and again, producing ear-splitting clangs. Seeing that they could not gain the upper hand through swordplay alone, both heroes gathered their spirit energy, preparing to—

"Adam? Are you alright?"

Adam returned to reality after hearing Lilith's voice. He realised that he was standing in the middle of a dwarf's shop while dumbly holding a sword.

"I won't pry into your business," Herrard said. "But I can assure that, if you're facing any monster short of a dragon, a sword of mine won't fail you."

Adam looked down at the sword in his hand. "I can certainly believe that."

"Well, have you made a decision?" Herrard asked.

Adam examined each of the swords again. They were all excellent, and a few months ago, he would have accepted any of them. In fact, he would have been overjoyed just to be able to possess a dwarf-made sword. However…

_Considering the opponents I might face in the future, I can't accept anything but the best possible sword I can acquire. That might be one of these, but it might be something else._

"Sorry, Herrard, but I can't make a decision yet," Adam said. "I'd like to visit the other blacksmiths first."

Herrard snorted. "No need to try and soften things. If you don't want to buy one of my swords, that's fine. There are plenty of other blacksmiths in this city who have better swords than me… though I will warn you that, like everything else in this world, you'll have to pay for quality."

Adam thanked the dwarf, then he and Lilith left the shop.

Once they were out in the street again, Adam planned to head for the next closest blacksmith. But before he could do that, Lilith tugged on his sleeve to lead him into a nearby alley, out of sight of passing dwarves.

"Lilith, what's the matter—"

"There's something wrong, isn't there?" Lilith said. "Please, you can tell me."

Adam hesitated for a moment. Even after everything they'd been through together, it was still difficult to admit a secret like this. But this was a secret that concerned both of them, and Lilith had already revealed her own secrets to him.

"Alright," Adam said, taking a deep breath. "First, I'm worried if any sword I could possibly buy would be good enough for the foes that we might face in the future. My former sword was damaged during the fight against the kraken, and we both know there are far mightier monsters in existence. But that's really just a minor concern. My real concern is—" Adam glanced around, then lowered his voice to a whisper, "—that, sooner or later… I'll have to fight members of the Order, including my fellow heroes."

"That's…"

"It's something we've avoided so far," Adam continued. "It helps that heroes like me have considerable autonomy in how we operate, so my behaviour so far wouldn't be seen as unusual. However, it can't last forever. Sooner or later, someone will stumble upon our secret… and I can't think of any solutions."

Lilith was silent for a few seconds, then whispered back, "You're right. It's something I should have paid more attention to, especially since Thutmose showed that it's possible to see through my disguise. I thought that it would still be fine, since he was a much better mage than almost anyone still alive, but… that was just stupid of me."

"It was stupid of both of us. Regardless, we—"

"But I think I might have an answer," Lilith declared.

Adam froze in surprise. Once again, he glanced around, but there was no one eavesdropping on them.

"Succubi like me have a lot of spells for affecting the mind—it's our specialty," Lilith said. "I haven't trained as much in those as I could have, because of—because of the memories associated with that. But among those spells, there are some for changing people's memories, both removing them or replacing them with something different. If—If anyone finds out our secret, if we're able to capture them, then I could make them—make them forget that they'd seen anything."

_That's… if anyone else heard this, they'd think she was planning to infiltrate and corrupt the Order,_ Adam thought. _And if they heard me agree with it, they'd think I was already corrupted. But I know that she would never do that…_

_Still, it's not exactly a moral thing to do, altering people's memories… but it's better than killing them, which would be the only other option._

"I see… thanks for telling me that," Adam said. "It's lifted one burden off my shoulders."

Lilith breathed out a sigh of relief. "I thought that—that you might not accept that method. It's something that even I feel reluctant about. Still, it's something we should keep as a last resort."

Adam nodded. "Thank you for confronting me on my issues, Lilith. If you hadn't done that, I would have kept it to myself and… I don't know what I would have done next, but it certainly wouldn't have been pleasant."

"Hey, what are partners for?"

The two of them left the alley and resumed their search for Adam's new sword.

-ooo-

A few hours later, they had visited half-a-dozen more dwarven blacksmiths. All of them had swords of excellent quality on offer. But no matter how much Adam examined and practiced with the swords, he never felt entirely satisfied.

_I need to make a decision soon,_ Adam thought. _While it's nice to explore this city, I shouldn't spend too much time here. There's so much to do out there… we still haven't worked out what might be causing those strange massacres._

While moving around the city, Adam asked a few dwarves if they knew of Balin Ironheart. Naturally, most had never heard of him. However, while resting in a bar, they finally came across someone who'd heard of the Ironheart family.

"Oh, the Ironhearts? I did business with a couple of them a few years back, though I haven't met Balin," said a dwarf drinking by the counter. "They live up in the north part of the city, near the market. If you go out of this bar, turn left, take a right at the intersection, then follow the street, you should eventually see the market."

"Thank you," Adam said. "I can ask for more directions once I arrive there."

Adam and Lilith left the bar. They spent ten minutes leisurely walking through the city until they arrived at the market.

The market was even more cramped than the ones that Adam was familiar with, having two or three stalls in the same amount of space that would be used by a single human stall. There were all kinds of goods on offer here: ornaments carved from every sort of stone, ranging from simple granite to fine marble; gemstones of every kind, ranging in size from as small as a pea to as large as a human's fist; the various kinds of food preferred by the dwarves; even exotic spices and ornaments carved from wood, presumably imported from outside.

There were hundreds, possibly more than a thousand dwarves milling about the market. Adam and Lilith asked anyone who looked free if they knew where Balin could be found. The seventh dwarf they asked was able to give them an answer, directing them to one of the stalls.

At one of the stalls seeling imported goods, Adam met Balin again. The dwarf was selling various goods from the centre and south of the continent, including salted fish from Port Habuton and even some fine fabrics from Merith. When Adam approached, Balin looked up and his face brightened.

"You! I didn't expect to see you so soon—ah, but where are my manners? What are you here for, Hero Adam?"

"Just 'Adam' is fine," Adam said. "Anyway, I'm here because I'm looking for a new sword, would you happen to know of any good blacksmiths?"

Balin gasped. His eyes dropped to Adam's scabbard, then a knowing look appeared on his face.

"Of course, if you don't know of any, that's fine—"

"No—as it turns out, I know just the blacksmith you want," Balin said. "Just give me a moment to find someone to run my stall, and I'll show you to him immediately—"

"Hold on, the two of us aren't in a hurry," Adam said quickly. "You can show us after you've finished your business for the day. Or you could simply give us directions."

"No, that wouldn't do, this particular blacksmith is… he won't do a job for anyone unless they have a recommendation," Balin said. "And sometimes not even then… but I promise, you, he's the best damn blacksmith in this entire city, and probably the entire world! I finish in just…" Balin inspected an hourglass sitting on the counter of his stall, "one hour, so please wait until then!"

"Alright, that's fine," Adam said. "We'd like to take a look around this market as well."

"In that case, let me tell you the best places—aside from my own, of course—to visit…"

-ooo-

After an hour of exploring the market and buying a few souvenirs, Adam and Lilith returned to Balin's stall. The dwarf was already packing up by this time. They offered to help him, but he declined the offer, saying it would be disrespectful to allow his saviours to do such a thing.

Afterwards, Balin led the two of them out of the market. They spent several minutes walking, during which the streets grew narrower and the buildings closer together, which also resulted in the light growing dimmer. There were fewer dwarves in the streets, and the few remaining were reclusive and avoided eye contact with them.

Along the way, Balin explained more about the blacksmith he was introducing them to.

"In my childhood, I wanted to become a blacksmith. It's one of the traditional jobs for dwarves, after all. So I looked around and found a blacksmith who was looking for an apprentice. I spent six months under him, six months working with an absolute pain in the—ah, pardon my language. Anyway, he eventually told me that I wasn't suited to being a blacksmith and that I'd do better in a job where I dealt with people. I thought that he was just insulting me, but… after trying out the life of a merchant, I found out that I actually liked it."

"I see… so he's the sort of person who's rough on the outside, but soft on the inside?" Lilith said.

"No," Balin said, shaking his head. "He's definitely rough inside and out. I'm pretty sure he only said that to get rid of me. But his skills are the real deal, I can assure you of that."

Eventually, the three of them arrived at a single door at the end of a street. This was even shorter than most doors in this city, requiring Adam and Lilith to bend low in order to pass through.

The inside was dark, with the only illumination coming from the open door. Due to his experience in fighting at night, Adam could just barely make out an anvil and several piles of metal objects. He could also hear loud snoring.

"Wake up, old man!" Balin called out. "You have a customer!"

Adam nearly jumped in shock.

The snoring stopped, then something stirred in the darkness. A voice muttered, "Hmm? Finally here to kill me, boy?"

"Stop talking nonsense and wake up!" Balin said. He walked over to one corner, not slowed down at all by the darkness, and lit up a crystal to illuminate the room.

Now, Adam could see the dwarf who'd been sleeping in the room. He was older than any of the dwarves he'd seen so far, with skin wrinkled like tree bark and a thick white beard, though the latter was stained almost black with dirt. Despite his age, he retained a considerable amount of muscle, fitting for a blacksmith. However, said blacksmith also looked extremely irritated at the moment.

"I was just getting a nice sleep, and you just had to interrupt," the elderly blacksmith muttered.

"You spend most of your time sleeping anyway!" Balin retorted. "I've brought you a job! When was your last one!?"

Adam and Lilith exchanged nervous glances. While they had been warned of the rocky relationship between these two, actually seeing it was a different matter.

"I can see that, my eyes're still working," the elderly blacksmith said. He turned his eyes to the others in the room. "I'm Kalk. What do you… want…"

Kalk trailed off as his eyes focused on Lilith. This lasted for several seconds.

"Hey, quit staring!" Balin interjected. "I know you don't have any chances with women now, but you shouldn't forget your manners!"

"Shut up, I'm still better than you!" Kalk roared back. "Anyway, I'll take the job! You can go home, boy, there's no need for you here! I won't be able to work with you around, and I know you don't want to be around me, either!"

"Just make sure you make something good for them, alright!? They saved my life a while back!" Balin shouted. He turned to Adam and, using his normal voice, said, "Okay, so this is Kalk. As you can see—and hear—he's the last person you'd want to spend time with. But he's definitely the best damn blacksmith I know."

"I believe you, Balin," Adam said. "Thanks for introducing us."

"It's the least I can do to repay you," Balin said. "Anyway, if you run into any problems with Kalk, just find me again and I'll knock some sense into him."

"Try that, and _I'll_ be the one knocking you around!" Kalk retorted.

Balin left the building. The moment he left the door, Adam noticed that Kalk changed. His irritation disappeared and his eyes focused on the door. A few moments passed, then the elderly blacksmith spoke.

"You… you're a monster, right?"

Adam's blood ran cold. A small part of him wished to reach for his sword and end this threat. His conscience and reason prevailed: he couldn't bring himself to harm someone just like that, and killing the dwarf would draw even more attention.

"Hold on, I'm not going to turn you two in," Kalk said, raising his hands. "This isn't my first time seeing a human and monster get along."

"What?" Lilith said, her mouth gaping open. "How is… no, if we could… but, how? Just when and where have you seen that before?"

"As that insolent boy pointed out, I'm old," Kalk said. "And I haven't always been living in this city. 'Bout thirty years back, I was travelling around the world to sell my wares. I saw a lot of things, got into my fair share of scrapes—" the dwarf pulled up a sleeve, revealing a large scar on his forearm, "—and I met all sorts of people. Plenty of monsters… including a few that didn't attack me."

Adam and Lilith looked at each other. They had seen something similar with the sea monsters, but that had been after the intervention of an actual goddess. Hearing that there were more examples of that… it was surprising, yet it was also reassuring to know that they weren't alone.

"A few of them were just living out in the wild, but out in the east… there's a whole country of them," Kalk continued. "Have you ever heard of Zipangu?"

"I've never heard of it," Lilith said.

"I've heard of it once or twice, but I don't know much about it," Adam said. "I've only heard that it's a small island nation to the east. But… you're saying that humans and monsters there can… coexist?"

Kalk nodded. "I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth. Humans and monsters live together, without tryin' to kill each other… But it's isolated from the rest of the world, so it's no surprise that you two don't know of it. But anyway, it's my experience with monsters that let me tell you were a monster, girl. Speaking of which, what sort are you, anyway?"

"…A succubus," Lilith answered. "But if you don't mind me asking, how come you trusted us so easily? It's possible that—"

"That you've tricked this hero and're here for some nefarious purposes?" Kalk finished. He snorted dismissively. "I've seen that too, and I can tell that you two aren't like that. But I've said enough about that. You, boy, you're here for a new sword, aren't you?"

Adam didn't respond immediately. He was still surprised at his and Lilith's recent good fortune: after everything that had happened under the sea, they'd encountered a master blacksmith who _also_ knew about other examples of humans and monsters coexisting… If it weren't for the knowledge that a goddess was backing them, Adam might have thought this was all just a dream.

But then Adam remembered he had just been asked a question. He nodded and drew his current sword to show it to Kalk. The elderly blacksmith inspected the sword for a few seconds, then set it down on a nearby table and shook his head.

"I can see why you're looking for a new one… and this is new, what happened to your original sword?" Kalk asked.

"It was damaged and lost in a battle against a kraken—a powerful sea monster," Adam said, deciding that honesty would be best in this situation.

"Hmm… and you, show me your spear," Kalk said to Lilith.

"Huh?"

"Come on, even from here I can tell that your spear is old n' worn out," Kalk said. "You look like the type who prefers to fight with magic, but even if you don't use your spear often, it's better to have something that won't break on you in the middle of a fight."

"Well… I guess so…" Lilith said, and she handed over her spear.

Kalk inspected the spear. He ran his rough fingers over the wooden shaft, tapping certain points.

"I'm no carpenter, but even I can tell there's cracks here and here," Kalk said.

Lilith lowered her head. "Yeah… succubi don't really go for close combat, so we don't put a lot of thought into our weapons…"

"Eh, it's fine," Kalk said. "It leaves blacksmiths like me with a job to do."

Kalk walked over to a nearby cabinet and yanked open the door, revealing piles of metal ingots. One after another, he pulled out an ingot, examined it for a few seconds, then shook his head and put it back in. This process repeated for almost an entire minute. Most of the ingots were composed of metals that Adam couldn't even begin to recognise.

Finally, Kalk returned with a small pile of ingots in his arms. The pile must have weighed a considerable amount, but the dwarf showed no signs of being encumbered by it.

"Alright," Kalk said, setting down the ingots on a table. He picked up one ingot, which was a deep grey in colour. "This here is something you might have heard about: adamantite."

"I… have heard about that, but only in legends," Adam said. "Supposedly, weapons forged of it would never break."

"I've heard rumours about it, but only that it's used in weapons and armour of high-ranking monsters," Lilith said.

"Well, that's all true," Kalk said. "And before you complain, I'm using these to make your damn sword and there's nothing you can say t' change my mind. I've never made a sword that lets its user down, and I'm not going to start now. With the kinds of enemies you're planning to fight, anything else wouldn't stand up to the strain. Got it?"

"G-Got it," Adam replied weakly. The dwarf was surprisingly intimidating…

"And as for you," Kalk turned towards Lilith and picked up another ingot, which was golden in colour, "for you, I'll use this: orichalcum. It's not as tough as adamantite, but it's still tougher than most metals around, and it's good at conducting magic, so it should be good for your fighting style. It's the same metal that the hero's armour is made out of."

Adam heard this fact and filed it away for future reference. It made sense, given that the armour had come from the ancient civilisation of the desert, which had access to powerful magic. Though there was the question of how this elderly blacksmith had acquired such rare metals… he must have lived quite the interesting life.

"Thank you…" Lilith said. "And… this might be a rude question to ask, but how much do you want for this?"

That was an excellent question. All of the blacksmiths so far had demanded high prices for their wares: something that was only fair, considering the amount of effort put into them. With Kalk's much-vaunted skills and the quality of the materials he was using, Adam had some doubts as to whether they could actually afford his weapons.

"Ah… of course," Kalk said. He brought one hand to his chin. "Well, I do need to eat… what sort of money do you use now? Is it still gold, silver n' copper coins?"

"It is, though we understand that gemstones are also accepted here," Adam said, pulling out his pouch. "But if you wish, we could go and exchange them for coins—"

"No need for that," Kalk said. He reached into the pouch and pulled out… a mere six gemstones. "Alright, that's enough for the both of you. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to start."

Adam looked between his pouch and Kalk. "What—but that's—"

"Like I said, I'm old," Kalk said. Underneath his beard, his lips curled in a smile. "I've long passed the point where I care about money for its own sake. As long as I earn enough to live, that's fine. And you can think of this as a—what's the word again—investment, to help out a monster who's different from the rest. And, while I don't care about that boy, you still saved his life, and as a matter of dwarven pride, I need to do something to repay that."

_That's the first time you've brought up dwarven pride_, Adam thought. He chuckled internally. _It seems that master and apprentice both can't be honest about their relationship._

"Anyway, I have your weapons here, so I have an idea of what to make," Kalk said. "I'll be forging new weapons from scratch for the both of you. It should take me two, three days at most to finish them."

Adam couldn't think of anything to do but bow. "Thank you for this," he said.

"That's right," Lilith said, bowing as well. "You didn't have to do all this for us."

Kalk waved a hand dismissively. "Quit flirting in front of me, it's a distraction. Now, get out of my workshop."

-ooo-

After leaving the workshop, Adam and Lilith returned to the busier part of the city. They were both feeling sleepy—outside, it was probably past midnight by now—and found an inn to rest in. The moment they were safely inside a room, they began discussing what they'd just learned.

"More monsters like me…" Lilith said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I've always wondered if it was possible, but didn't really think it could be real until a few days ago. But now? He said… he said he's encountered more like me, and an entire _country_ of them… Now I'm wondering if I'm dreaming again."

"That makes two of us," Adam said. "There's the possibility that Kalk lied to us, but unless he's an _exceptionally_ good liar, I doubt he could fool both of us… And what reason would he have to say such a lie? No… as odd as it sounds, he has to be telling the truth."

Lilith nodded. She looked at Adam with a visibly conflicted expression for a few seconds, then said, "Alright. There's something I've been keeping secret from you. But after everything that's happened today, especially you revealing _your_ secret, I can't—I shouldn't do that any longer."

"What is it?" Adam asked. "Whatever it is, you should know that I won't hate you for it."

"Thanks for that," Lilith said. She smiled momentarily, but then assumed a serious expression. "Okay. So when we first met, when I was trying to convince you to hear me out, I said that monsters hate humans because we're taught that way. That's… one of the main reasons for it, but it's not the only reason. The truth is… the truth is that all monsters have a desire to attack humans."

Adam froze.

"All of us feel it: the other succubi in my village, the sea monsters from before…" Lilith continued. "I feel it as well, but it seems to be weaker in me than in most monsters. But every now and then, I feel that I should—that I should push you down and corrupt you!"

Lilith was now breathing heavily. Her eyes were focused on the floor.

The behaviour of monsters made much more sense now. If it was simply a matter of upbringing, then there should have been more monsters like Lilith—after all, monsters were split into countless different groups with varying cultures. But non-hostile monsters were rare, even going by what Kalk had told them. It made more sense if there was an additional factor driving the monsters. However, it was also clear that this desire to attack humans was _not_ absolute, and it could be overcome…

But Adam had to focus on the present situation. There was only one thing Adam could do right now. He walked over to Lilith and hugged her.

"W-What the—!?"

"Did you think that I'd hate you for that?" Adam said.

"But—But I've been lying to you for all this time…"

"And in all that time, you haven't attacked me even once. Now that I know that, I'm even more impressed by you."

Lilith punched Adam in the stomach, inflicting as much pain as the average mosquito bite. "Don't say that, that's just cheating."

"It's true that, if you'd told me that back when we first met, I would have distrusted you," Adam continued. "But now, after all the opportunities you've had and didn't take, and all the times you risked your life to save mine, there's no way I would do that."

"Don't be stupid… haven't you saved my life so many times as well?"

They remained in this position for almost an entire minute. When they finally moved apart, Lilith still couldn't look at Adam directly, but the expression on her face suggested that it was for an entirely different reason than before.

Suddenly, Adam was reminded of Kalk's parting words. It wasn't the first time he'd heard such a thing—it was fairly common when you were a man and woman travelling around together—but after he'd just hugged Lilith for an entire minute, those words now made him feel uncomfortable in several ways.

"So, back to the original topic, there's Zipangu," Adam said, trying to change the subject and desperately hoping Lilith wouldn't notice. "I think it would be a good idea to visit that country and see if it really is as Kalk described. We could do that after investigating the strange massacres."

"Y-Yes, that's a good idea," Lilith replied. "I haven't heard of any ships that go there, but if Kalk was able to go there in the past, then there must be some way to travel there. We can ask him that when we pick up our new weapons."

"Good idea… anyway, I'm feeling tired and I'm sure you are as well, so why don't we go to sleep?"

"Alright! Wake me up in the morning!"

They both went to bed, much more hastily than they usually would.


	17. Chapter 17: Legendary Equipment

Three days later, Lilith and Adam returned to Kalk's workshop. They had been spending the time exploring more of the city, and while they both would have liked to spend more time here, they couldn't afford to delay—every day they spent here meant more suffering and death in the outside world.

From the outside, the workshop was indistinguishable from the surrounding buildings. There weren't any sounds coming from inside and, if she hadn't known better, Lilith might have thought that the building was unoccupied.

They walked up to the door and Adam knocked on it. There was silence for a few seconds, then he knocked again.

"Do you think he might be sleeping?" Lilith suggested.

"That's… a possibility I can't deny," Adam said. "Still, today is the day he said he'd have our weapons finished by. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we—"

"You can go ahead and knock!" a gruff voice called out. "The old man always gets sleepy after a big job, so you'll need to be loud!"

The two of them turned to see Balin approaching.

"I came here because I thought you might need some help," Balin said. "On behalf of Kalk, I apologise for the trouble he's caused you. Even though he's so old already, he still hasn't learned how to treat customers properly…"

"It's alright, we're in no hurry," Adam said.

"He's even making me a new spear as well," Lilith added.

"Yes, he can be… I refuse to call him generous, but he's definitely unconventional," Balin said grudgingly. "Still, I won't have him delay you any longer." He walked up to the door and loudly rapped on it. "Wake up, old man! I know you always sleep after big jobs, but now isn't the time! They've come to pick up their weapons!"

After a brief pause, there were several thudding footsteps, and then the door was thrown open with a slam.

"There's no need for you to be here, boy!" Kalk roared.

"I wouldn't have to be here if you could do your damn job properly!" Balin retorted. "Now, do you have the weapons ready?"

"Of course I do," Kalk replied, his voice softening. He turned towards Lilith and Adam. "Sorry about that, please come in."

The three of them all entered the blacksmith's workshop. Kalk went into a back room and came out carrying two weapons. In his left hand, he carried a sword with a deep red hilt and a grey scabbard. In his right hand, he carried a spear twice as long as he was tall, with a golden head and several silver bands along the shaft.

If she was honest with herself, Lilith hadn't been as enthused as Adam about the prospect of getting a new weapon. After all, her spear was intended as a supplement to her magic, and as long as it was capable of piercing through the average monster's flesh, she'd considered it sufficient. She wasn't unusual in this regard: most of the succubi she'd known didn't carry weapons at all and, according to Adam, human mages rarely carried anything more than a backup dagger.

But when she saw this spear, Lilith felt an undeniable sense of awe. She knew—just from this single glance—that it was a weapon made for her.

Kalk walked over and handed the two weapons over to his customers. "Here you go. They should fit your needs perfectly. And again, sorry about sleeping in."

"Rather than apologising, you should learn to wake up when customers knock," Balin said, but without his previous venom. He looked at the two weapons. "Still… you didn't hold back at all for this job, did you?"

"I never hold back in my work," Kalk huffed. "And I added a bit of decoration as well. It might seem stupid, but reputation's also an important part of being a fighter, and these decorations won't get in the way of you killing things."

Lilith slowly ran her hands along the spear. She injected a miniscule amount of energy into it, not enough to accomplish any significant effect, and was shocked by the reaction she felt. It was like throwing a spark at a pile of logs and suddenly being faced by a raging bonfire. Kalk had been right: orichalcum was an excellent conductor of magic.

Lilith then performed a few tentative strikes with her new spear. It sliced and pierced through the air without any resistance. At the same time, it had a comforting weight to it, reassuring her that it wouldn't break mid-battle.

_I really should have put more thought into my weapon. I _knew_ that it wouldn't last forever, but I didn't think it really mattered, since it was just a common spear and I could buy a new one in any village or town. But that was stupid of me… if it broke during a fight, I could easily be killed, and that could lead to Adam getting killed as well…_

_I won't make that mistake again._ Lilith tightened her grasp on her spear. _I'm not just running around the country on my own anymore. I have someone else to protect… and many more people that I'm fighting for._

Lilith glanced to the side. She saw that Adam was also practicing with his new sword. He'd made similar motions a thousand times before, but there seemed to be something… different about him now. The most plausible explanation was that he was using a far better sword, but that alone wouldn't explain why Lilith couldn't take her eyes off him. She watched his muscles ripple and bulge as he moved, listened to his grunts of exertion, smelled the delicious scent of his spirit energy. The barrage of sensations made her want to push him down, tear off that armour of his, and—

Kalk cleared his throat. Lilith flushed crimson when she remembered that she and Adam weren't the only ones in the room. She quickly checked Adam's reaction, but he was simply looking at Kalk in a confused manner, and didn't seem to have noticed Lilith's gaze. That was fortunate for her.

"Hey, old man, can't you read the atmosphere?" Balin said.

"I did, that's why I want them to stop flir—to stop practicing in my workshop," Kalk said. "This city has better places to do that. You'd know more about those, boy, so why not show them around?"

"I'd be happy to do that—if you two would be fine with me—?"

"Yes, definitely!" Lilith said quickly. "Thanks, that would be a great help!"

Balin nodded. "In that case, follow me…"

Lilith and Adam thanked Kalk once again for his work. The old blacksmith simply told them to make good use of his weapons, and to not tell anyone where they'd obtained them: he didn't want to be pestered by an endless queue of requests. Then the succubus and hero followed Balin out of the workshop.

As the three of them walked through the city, Lilith paid the bare minimum of attention to her surroundings. It wasn't due to familiarity, as there were still many novel sights around, but because she was occupied by something much more important than sightseeing.

_That's the first time I've felt that urge in a while… I was hoping I'd gotten over that, but it seems that I was hoping for too much._

Lilith recalled the encounter with the sea monsters from a few days ago.

_They were amazed that I was able to hold it in… but from my perspective, it's not impressive at all…_

-ooo-

Balin led the two of them to a training yard at the west edge of the city. There were half a dozen dwarves here, practicing with axes, maces and short spears.

"Here's a place that I use to train on occasion," Balin said. "I may be a merchant, but I pass through some fairly dangerous places for my work, so I need to know how to defend myself."

Adam nodded in understanding. "Well, Balin, you've been a major help to us. We wouldn't have obtained weapons like this if it wasn't for your recommendation."

"Ah, this is the least I can do to repay my debt to you," Balin said. "Besides, I needed to check if Kalk was still alive. That old man's worse than a baby when it comes to looking after himself."

Lilith and Adam shared a wry glance. No matter what the two dwarves claimed, it was obvious that they did care for each other.

"Anyway, you've helped us a lot," Lilith said. "You can go back to your business now."

Balin bade farewell to them and left. With him gone, the dwarves using the training yard began crowding around Lilith and Adam.

"Hey, you're the hero pair who they're all talking about, right?" asked one dwarf.

"That's right," Adam replied.

"Though I'm not, technically, a hero," Lilith said. _And that's an understatement. A monster hero… it's almost funny to think about._

"If you don't mind, could you tell us about your experiences?" asked a second dwarf.

This was a question that had been asked of them several times during their stay in this city. Lilith and Adam took turns to answer the dwarves' questions. Whenever one of them wasn't talking, they were practicing with their new weapon.

There were a range of training dummies in this area. During her first break from the conversation, Lilith chose one of these dummies and decided to test how effective her new spear was.

Lilith stood in front of the dummy and imagined that it was a charging enemy. She focused her mind, then dashed forward and impaled the dummy. Her spear pierced all the way through the dummy with little resistance, to the point that Lilith actually had to plant her feet in the ground to avoid colliding with the dummy.

_…__That was like piercing through a block of butter! Then how about some magic…?_

Lilith gathered her demonic energy, focusing it in the tip of the spear. She then released it all at once.

Previously, this spell wouldn't have done anything more than give the dummy a light coating of frost. But with her new spear as a focus, the spell instead manifested as a pillar of ice that caused the dummy to snap in two. The two halves of the dummy loudly clattered to the ground.

Lilith turned around nervously. Adam and the dwarves were all looking at her with smiles on their faces.

"Uhh… sorry for breaking it…" Lilith said tentatively.

"It's fine, those are made to be broken!" said one of the dwarves.

"Yeah, just the other day I smashed one of their heads in!" said another dwarf.

"Heh, I'm pretty sure the one you were training with was one of the old ones," said a third dwarf. "A kid could have broken that one."

"What did you say!? Do you want to go a round with me!?"

"Hey, how about I tell you more about what the two of us do, okay?" Lilith interjected.

Lilith moved towards the dwarves, allowing Adam to take his turn at practicing with his new weapon.

For the next ten minutes, Lilith told the dwarves about her and Adam's adventures. There was a lot that she couldn't mention, but even incidents like the attack of the sandworm and the battle aboard the ship made for interesting stories.

"—and just when it seemed like it would all be over, Adam raised his sword and let out this burst of energy that caused all of the monsters to freeze in their tracks!" Lilith recounted. "In an instant, he had turned the tide of the battle around!"

"Wow!" one dwarf said. "I have to get out of this city soon, I never knew that the outside world was that exciting!"

"Well, you could call it that, but other people would call it dangerous," Lilith pointed out.

"Everything's dangerous to some extent," another dwarf pointed out. "But if you stayed at home to be as safe as possible, life wouldn't be enjoyable."

"Anyway, you're pretty good at telling stories," said a third dwarf. "Were you a bard before getting into this line of work?"

"Not exactly, but before this I—" Lilith flinched slightly, due to recalling a now-uncomfortable memory. "—I used to tell stories to the younger children in the village I came from."

Lilith hadn't had the opportunity to make use of this skill for a long time, due to her nervousness at talking to non-succubi. It was only thanks to her improvement in this area that she was able to demonstrate it now.

"Say, we've been wondering this for a while, but… if you don't mind me asking, what _is_ the relationship between you two?" asked the first dwarf. "Are you just colleagues, or…?"

"That's… kind of complicated," Lilith said, lowering her eyes to the ground. "Right now, we're just colleagues."

The dwarves looked at each other knowingly. Lilith suddenly wished that she was anywhere else but here. She looked around for something to distract herself, but the only other person in the training yard was Adam… who was the _worst_ person she could possibly use as a distraction.

"Sorry if that was an embarrassing question," the first dwarf said. "It's just that, well… I had a couple of friends a while ago who both had feelings for each other, but were too shy to admit it. A lot of things happened, and… eventually, they both moved out of the city and went their separate ways, because their relationship had turned sour. And in your line of work, I'm guessing that it's pretty common for people to die young. It's just… I'm not sure, is there any kind of rule against that kind of relationship?"

Lilith didn't know about this personally, but Adam had previously told her about this topic. Apparently, the Order officially forbade romantic relationships among members of the same group, as this could potentially lead to conflicts of judgement. In practice, this rule couldn't be enforced on countless people scattered over the entire world, so all but the most fanatical of the clergy tended to turn a blind eye to such relationships.

But of course, there was a completely different reason for why Lilith had been trying to ignore this topic. She was a monster—and while recent events suggested that monsters and humans might not have to be mortal enemies anymore, she was of a particular race of monster that could never be in a relationship with a human. The urge she'd felt today was proof of that.

_I am a predator that feeds on humans through sex,_ Lilith thought. _Even if—no, even though Adam might be fine with a celibate relationship, he deserves better than that. He deserves better than someone like me._

Lilith recalled that warmth from a few days ago, when Adam had embraced her reassuringly. It was a warmth that she wished she could experience again, and again… but that could never be.

"There is a rule like that," Lilith said. It was technically true, and it would bring this uncomfortable topic to an end.

Suddenly, there was the sound of another training dummy hitting the ground. Lilith and the dwarves turned to see that Adam had sliced his dummy in half. It was a clean cut, too. And Adam was looking just as embarrassed as Lilith had been.

The topic of the conversation then turned to the quality of their new weapons. Lilith and Adam didn't reveal who they'd bought them from, due to their promise to Kalk. The dwarves weren't surprised by this: apparently, it was common for the most skilled dwarven blacksmiths to be cantankerous recluses who only worked for those recommended to them.

All in all, the two of them spent half an hour in the training yard. Once they had practiced sufficiently with their new weapons, they left the yard and headed for the exit of the city. They reacquired their horses and, for the first time in three days, stepped out into the open air.

It was refreshing to be out in the open again. While the dwarven city of Vaseram had been an impressive sight, Lilith had still been starting to feel claustrophobic down there. She hadn't been able to see the sun or to fly freely.

The two of them set off along the road to the north. According to what they'd heard in the city, they would arrive at a crossroads in a couple of hours, and the road leading east from there would take them to the east coast of the continent.

-ooo-

Kalk took several deep breaths and stretched his limbs. His body responded to his will, but a fraction of a second more slowly than he would have preferred.

_Hmph… the boy might be an ignorant fool, but he's right that I'm getting old. At this rate, it'll only be a few more years before I can't lift a hammer anymore._

The dwarf's brows furrowed in a grimace. He slowly made his way over to his bed and lay down. That was something he was doing more of with every passing day.

_Should I retire soon, teach the next generation how to smith, like the boy is always pestering me to do? Hmph… I don't want these skills to be lost, but I'm also not sure if any apprentice would be able to put up with me. The boy couldn't take it, and—_

Suddenly, Kalk heard a knock on the door. He briefly wondered whether he should answer it or simply pretend to not be in. He soon settled on the former option: he might be getting old, but he could still greet a customer without his bones breaking underneath his weight.

Kalk stood up, walked over to the door of his workshop and opened it. He immediately froze.

Standing in front of the door was a human woman wearing armour and with a sword sheathed at her hip: a hero, as even an imbecile could tell. She had brown hair cut short, pale skin and watchful blue eyes, and stood at roughly twice Kalk's height. She looked to be in her thirties… but her gaze and posture were those of someone much older and much more experienced.

"Ah… it's you," Kalk murmured.

"Yes. Is this a bad time?" asked the human hero.

"It's fine, come in," Kalk said.

Kalk stepped aside to allow the hero to enter his workshop. Once inside, she removed her sword from her belt and placed it on a nearby table, then began removing the various pieces of her armour. All of this was done with the smooth motions of someone with decades of experience.

Picking up one of the hero's gauntlets, Kalk raised an eyebrow at the multiple scratches and dents on it. The rest of the armour was in a similar condition, and presumably the same was true for the sword. Overall, the equipment was even more battered than during the hero's previous visit: no mean feat, considering that it was made of adamantite.

"Just what have you been doing lately, Justinia?" Kalk asked. "I know it's been ten years since you last came, but this?"

Justinia smiled wryly. "Quite a few things. Would you like me to tell you the full story?"

"Ah, I don't have enough time in my day to listen to more of your stories," Kalk said. "That said, I'm surprised that the hero who killed the last Demon Lord can still run into tough spots."

"You're not the first person to say that to me, and I doubt you'll be the last," Justinia said, removing her last piece of armour. "That time… I only prevailed because of the help of many others, and a considerable amount of dumb luck. And for all of my strength and experience, luck is still an important factor in battle. A single unfortunate attack could still bring my life to an end."

Kalk wondered if it was a rule for heroes—the competent ones, at least—to be so modest regarding their own skills. In his youth, he'd encountered a number of powerful monsters, and they weren't the type of opponents that could be defeated thanks to "dumb luck". And none of those monsters would have been anywhere close to the level of a Demon Lord.

Still, Kalk wasn't in any mood to argue about unimportant topics like these. He was a blacksmith, and he had a job to do.

As he began carrying Justinia's equipment into the back of his workshop for repairs, Kalk took another look at the hero. She was even older than him—the era of the previous Demon Lord was a hundred years ago—yet she had no grey in her hair, and just a few stress-induced wrinkles around her eyes. A stranger would not be able to discern her true age except through the atmosphere she gave off.

This was one of the benefits to being a hero. The status came with boosts to one's physical capabilities, including strength, stamina, reflexes, agility and—perhaps most importantly—regeneration. In the most powerful heroes, this was taken to the extent that they were indistinguishable from those decades younger than them… but only on a physical level. On a mental and emotional level, they were essentially a different breed of person entirely.

_Or in other words, they're all broken in some way or another,_ Kalk thought. _In her case, she's still putting in enough work that her equipment ends up in this sorry state. _

_Hmph. I'm sure it makes the world safer, but I would never be able to do what she does._


	18. Chapter 18: Slaughter

_AN: I was planning to release this chapter a few days ago, but while rereading it I found several places that could use further work, so I spent longer on it. Hopefully the next chapter of _Light, Darkness and Paradox_ won't take this long._

* * *

Lilith and Adam spent two weeks travelling across the country, passing through several villages and dealing with the occasional monster or bandit attack. As they approached the east coast, and thus approached the location of one of these strange massacres, the inhabitants of the villages grew increasingly nervous.

The first village treated the massacres as a dark rumour, one that didn't come up in polite conversation.

The third village was extremely distrusting of visitors. Lilith and Adam were allowed to enter, but only after the villagers had taken several minutes to confirm that the latter was a genuine hero.

The fifth and final village had fortified itself considerably, with a dry moat and an earth wall surrounding the buildings. Lilith and Adam were stopped at the very outskirts and were only permitted to exchange information from here. And the villagers kept several bows aimed at them the whole time, not taking any chances.

And during their journey, the pair heard many theories about the cause of these strange massacres. Some said that they were the work of a new race of monster, one that was focused on causing distress among humans through this sort of unexpected behaviour. Others claimed it was the work of a newly arisen cult, worshipping a false god that demanded a specific kind of human sacrifice. There were even those who believed that it was the work of a hero, one who'd lost their sanity and was now slaughtering humans in order to "spare" them from the depredations of monsters.

At the end of the two weeks, they spotted their destination in the distance. It was a collection of wooden buildings along the coastline, none more than a single storey in height.

"Alright, we need to decide how we're going to investigate," Adam said. "We wouldn't want to spend too much time here."

"We'll need to check out each of the houses," Lilith said. "And… according to the rumours, the slaughtered villagers were all buried. Should we try and dig up one of them to… to check out how they died?"

For a few moments, neither of them said a word.

"I'm sorry… it was stupid of me to suggest that—"

"No… I think that's a good idea," Adam said. "It's true… that goes against common decency. But stopping these strange massacres is more important. If that means we must find out whatever information we can, then so be it."

After hearing these words, Lilith lowered her gaze to the ground. On the one hand, it was reassuring that her idea hadn't been rejected. On the other hand, the prospect of actually carrying out this suggestion made her feel queasy.

They were now much closer to the village. And now, Lilith was able to sense the tell-tale signature of demonic energy: the village wasn't uninhabited. She raised a hand to signal that Adam should stop.

"There's monsters up ahead: about twenty or thirty of them."

"The type?" Adam asked.

"I think they're beasts of some kind, though I can't be sure from this distance," Lilith replied.

"Hmm… the most likely possibility is that they've just taken advantage of the empty buildings, and have nothing to do with the massacre itself," Adam said. "Regardless, we should talk to them. In the worst-case scenario, they'll be hostile and we can simply kill them. But there's the possibility that these ones aren't hostile to humans…"

However, from Adam's tone of voice, it was clear that he considered the former possibility more likely. And Lilith could hardly disagree with that: all of the monsters they'd encountered since leaving Vaseram had been of the hostile variety.

Trying to bring about coexistence between monsters and humans was a noble-sounding goal, but actually bringing it about was a different matter. The main reason the sea monsters had changed their ways was due to the intervention of a literal goddess.

_We could really use some more divine intervention right now,_ Lilith thought. _Though we're far from the sea right now, so I guess that would be too much to ask…_

The two of them dismounted and tied their horses to a tree, then approached the village slowly. They didn't have their weapons in hand, but they did keep them in positions where they could be drawn in an instant.

When Lilith and Adam were about a hundred paces away from the edge of the village, they spotted the beast monsters. They had upper bodies that were vaguely humanoid, albeit covered with brown fur, while their lower bodies had the powerful musculature, long legs and bushy tails of horses. They were centaurs.

When they were fifty paces away from the village, the centaurs noticed them. The centaurs picked up spears and short bows, then rushed out of the village to confront them.

There were approximately twenty centaurs in total. They directed wary gazes at Lilith and Adam, but none of them charged or loosed an arrow. Presumably, they were hesitating because they were confused by this unexpected visit.

_That's good… it gives us an opportunity, at least. Now, we just have to see if this works._

The largest of the centaurs, a bulky male with several scars, trotted forward. He looked at Adam and then at Lilith, then said, "You… just what do you want here?"

Adam stepped forward and answered, "I am a hero and this is my partner, but we haven't come here because we want to kill you. We're here to investigate the strange massacre that has taken place in this village, as well as in several others. The inhabitants were all killed, only to have their bodies buried for no apparent reason. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

The centaurs looked at each other and restlessly pawed the ground with their hooves. However, they still didn't attack.

After a few moments, the centaur leader said, "We don't know anything about that, except for what you just said. We just moved into this village a couple of weeks ago, and it was empty then." He slammed the butt of his spear against the ground. "But don't try to fool us. We've never heard of a hero who's willing to _talk_ to monsters."

The herd of centaurs tensed, and it felt like hostilities would break out at any moment.

To salvage the situation, Lilith decided to do something drastic. She reverted to her succubus form, letting her wings and tail unfurl.

"_This_ is why we're doing this," Lilith said. "My name is Lilith, I'm a succubus, and I've been working with Adam here for months. We monsters don't _have_ to attack humans, and the humans don't have to fight back against us. We _can_ work together with them!"

The centaurs were stunned into silence. Lilith decided to make use of this opportunity and press her advantage.

"And I'm not the only one! In the south, there's a lot of sea monsters who have also sworn off attacking humans! If more of us can do the same, then the humans would—"

Suddenly, the centaurs burst out into mocking laughter. Lilith stopped her speech, unable to come up with another word. However, she heard the nearby sound of metal sliding on metal: Adam had unsheathed his sword.

"I heard that succubi are supposed to be cunning, but it seems that was a lie," the centaur leader said. "Do you really think we'd fall for that? You managed to trick this hero, but it looks like that was just a fluke. Kill them!"

The bow-wielding centaurs loosed their arrows, creating a volley of deadly points. At the same time, the spear-wielding centaurs charged forward, letting out harsh battle-cries.

_So it didn't work… When will we manage to convince more people? But now's not the time to worry about that!_

Lilith charged her spear with demonic energy and swept it in a wide arc. With her previous spear, this would have just created an unfocused breeze, too weak to even knock down an untrained human. But with her new and improved spear, she was able to create a powerful gust that erased the momentum of the arrows, causing them to fall to the ground harmlessly.

At the same time, Adam charged forward to meet the oncoming centaurs. The first centaur he encountered laughed in delight, likely thinking that the hero had come within attack range… and then the centaur fell to the ground in two pieces. Lilith hadn't even been able to see Adam's attack!

But Lilith couldn't just stand there and watch. She took to the air and flew towards the herd of centaurs. With her directly above them, the bow-wielding centaurs had trouble aiming at her, especially since the sun was behind Lilith. On the other hand, Lilith's fire spells were extremely accurate, each one bringing a centaur to the ground.

After killing all of the archers, Lilith turned to check on Adam. She needn't have worried: her partner had succeeded in killing all of the spear-wielding centaurs, and while he was covered in fresh blood, he was moving in a way that suggested none of the blood belonged to him.

It was a simple battle, one that the two of them would have had minimal trouble with even before getting their new weapons. In fact, it was so simple that they didn't really have the opportunity to fully test the potential of their new weapons. The same was true for the several battles they'd fought along the way here.

_Though a battle in which we _could_ test their full potential would have to be a dangerous one,_ Lilith thought. _And it would have been better if we didn't have to fight at all… Though I guess that's too much to ask for._

Lilith landed next to Adam. They each confirmed that the other one was alright, then headed towards the village to investigate further. The centaurs hadn't found any clues about the massacre, but perhaps the two of them might be able to find something, thanks to their unique combination of skills.

But as they approached the village, several more centaurs emerged. Lilith prepared another spell, only to freeze on the spot.

These centaurs weren't bulky and full-grown like the ones from before. They were no taller than a human child, and no heavier than a horse foal… they were just children. And they were shivering in fear.

Lilith almost let her spear fall from her hands, but managed to keep a hold on it. However, that didn't help her at all in the current situation.

A moment later, the centaur children galloped away, out of the village and off into the distance. Despite their youth, they were still extremely fast.

Lilith whirled around to face Adam and said, "Quick, we have to—we have to follow them!"

Adam seemed distracted for a moment, but he soon nodded.

The two of them rushed back to their horses. However, the animals were skittish and, when directed to go in the direction of the centaurs, actively resisted.

"No, they're too frightened by the battle just now," Adam said. "These ones aren't trained to handle monsters or combat! We won't be able to follow them on horseback!"

Lilith wracked her brains for other options. She eventually reached into a pocket and brought out the diamond she'd received from Thutmose. Over the past few weeks, she had managed to fill it up with energy again.

_Those centaur children wouldn't have the stamina of adults, and in their panic, they wouldn't be pacing themselves… Then this might work. It _has _to work!_

"Adam, we'll have to fly after them," Lilith said.

"Are you sure?" Adam asked. "It might be better if you fly after them on your own, I'd just slow you down…"

Lilith held up the diamond. "With this, I should be able to carry you and still keep up with them. It should only take part of the energy in the diamond… But we have to hurry!"

"Alright!"

They tied up their horses again, then Lilith wrapped her arms underneath Adam's shoulders and lifted her partner into the air.

Lilith darted after the centaurs, pushing her wings almost to their limit.

The centaur children had a considerable headstart, but they still weren't as fast as an adult succubus, especially not one who was replenishing her stamina constantly. Less than a minute later, Lilith spotted the dust trails of the galloping centaurs.

"Hey! Please, listen to us!" Lilith called out. "We… We…"

But Lilith had no idea what else to say. She had decided on a moment's notice to chase after the centaur children, but she couldn't think of the words to convince them to—to do anything. Just what _could_ she say to children whose parents she'd killed?

Meanwhile, a couple of centaurs glanced over their shoulders, but they only looked panicked and redoubled their pace.

Lilith began to slow down. "Adam… is there anything we can do?"

"…Not much," Adam admitted. "But now isn't the time to give up. We shouldn't give up until there's no chance at all of talking to them."

_That's right,_ Lilith thought. _Our goal is to bring an end to this conflict between monsters and humans. We can't possibly give up now!_

Lilith increased her speed to overtake the centaur children, then landed in front of them and set Adam down. The centaurs skidded to a stop. Some of them looked around for another direction to run towards, but none of them made a move. It seemed that they realised they could not escape.

One of the centaurs stepped in front of the others, spreading his arms in a protective manner. "I—I won't let you hurt them!"

"Wait, that's not what we're here for—" Lilith attempted.

"How can you say that!?" the centaur child shouted. "You killed our parents! You're definitely here to kill us too!"

Lilith held back on the obvious retort, that the centaur adults had attacked her and Adam first. But that left her with nothing she _could_ say.

Then Adam stepped forward. The centaur children recoiled in fear. It was no surprise, as Adam was still covered in their parents' blood.

"It's true, we killed your parents," Adam said. "It's also true that they attacked us first, leaving us no option but to defend ourselves. I won't ask you to forgive us—that would be unreasonable—but I will warn you. If you attack humans in the future, for any reason other than self-defence, then you'll meet the same fate."

Some of the centaurs cowered at these words. The rest, including the one who was trying to shield the others, instead looked more defiant.

"Don't try to trick us!" the centaur child shouted. "My mother told me about people like you, you'll say you're here to help us, but it's just because you want to use us, and then you'll kill us!"

Adam hesitated for a moment, then said, "Then, as proof of our intentions, we'll leave you be. But remember my warning: stay away from humans, or you'll be killed."

Adam turned around and walked back to Lilith, who took the cue to pick him up and take flight again.

Lilith spent several moments just flying away. When she finally looked over her shoulder, she noticed that the centaur children were still in the same spot, apparently unsure if the succubus and hero were actually leaving them be.

"Adam… do you think they'll accept that?" Lilith asked.

"I… I don't know," Adam replied. His voice was so weak that it was almost drowned out by the wind.

The moment the centaur children were out of sight, Lilith landed and gently set Adam down. She glanced in the direction of the centaurs again, then turned her eyes to her partner.

"Are you alright, Adam?" Lilith asked. "You were a major help back there… I had no idea what to say."

"To be honest, neither did I," Adam admitted. "While you were carrying me to them, I was frantically thinking of words I could say. I thought of half-a-dozen possibilities, most of which would have done nothing or made the situation even worse. Eventually… I decided that fear was the only option that could possibly work. They were already afraid, and I thought… I thought it might be possible to scare them into not attacking humans."

Adam looked away. His body trembled with fear: a sight that made Lilith feel sick to her stomach.

"I'm sorry."

"No, there's nothing you need to be sorry for," Lilith protested. "You said the best thing that came to your mind, which is better than I—"

"It's not that, I…" Adam clenched his fists, then looked directly at Lilith. "I've killed children before."

If they had been travelling together for a shorter period of time, then Lilith would have been utterly horrified by this revelation. But she had already heard of this once before… back in the desert village, Adam had told her the story of how his group had once cleared out an entire nest of giant ants. The implications of that were obvious. Lilith had hidden her reaction at the time, not wanting to discomfort him.

"They were monster children, but that's no excuse," Adam continued. "My friends and I, we came across monsters with their children several times. And… we dealt with them in the same way we dealt with adult monsters."

"…I know," Lilith said. "You mentioned it to me before."

"Then… Then why did you stay with me?" Adam asked. "If things had turned out differently, it could have been you and your relatives that we killed."

These words caused Lilith to picture her friends and family—her _former_ friends and family. Rather than laughing and playing in the sun, they were lying on the ground, blood dripping from countless wounds.

Lilith wanted to answer that it didn't matter, that Adam had simply been doing his duty as a hero. She tried to remind herself that her former friends and family were predators that fed on humans, even if it was through a different method to other monsters.

But she still hesitated for a moment, and that was enough for Adam to look away in shame.

"I haven't thought about this at all until now," Adam said. "Even after meeting you, and learning that monsters weren't inevitably evil. Not even after meeting those sea monsters. I was… I was too afraid to face what I'd done. I'm no hero."

_No, I can't let him beat himself up over this,_ Lilith thought. She grabbed Adam by the shoulders. "Listen to me. Back in the dwarven city, you told me that you didn't hate me for lying to you all this time. Well, now's the time for me to repay that favour!"

"That's… our circumstances aren't the same," Adam said, still trying to look away. "You didn't kill anyone by lying to me."

"I didn't _succeed_ in killing anyone, but if I _had_ lost control, then you wouldn't have been properly prepared to stop me. All because I thought you didn't have a right to know the truth," Lilith said. "Anyway, do you think you're irredeemable because of what you've done? Then take a look at what you're doing now! You're regretting what you've done, and you're trying to help out some monster children instead of killing them!"

"But only after first killing their parents," Adam tried to point out.

That was the harsh and undeniable truth. Lilith recalled the faces of the centaur children again, the looks of horror and fear at that moment.

"That's true," Lilith conceded. "But… I'm as guilty of that as you are. It's something that we can never undo. But we can't afford to stop here. We need to learn from this so we don't repeat it, but we have to move on! Tell me, do you still want to help monsters and humans get along?"

A spark ignited in Adam's eyes. With a quiet but firm voice, one more fitting for a hero, he said, "I do."

Lilith was filled with relief. "Then let's move on. We still need to investigate that village. And… we should probably dispose of the centaurs' bodies."

"And just two weeks ago, _I_ was the one comforting you," Adam said, "Alright. And after doing that, it might be a good idea to follow those centaur children around. On their own, they might fall victim to all kinds of dangers."

Now that they had agreed on what to do, the two of them returned to the now-deserted village. At the outskirts of the village, their horses were still tied up, and they had now calmed down.

They gathered together all of the centaur corpses into one pile, then Lilith set fire to the entire pile. She continued feeding energy to the fire, causing it to burn hotter than any natural fire. After five minutes, there was nothing left but ash and charred fragments of bone.

With that done, they entered the village of Wisterion. The village was filled with signs of the centaurs' recent presence: fresh hoofprints, half-eaten food dropped on the ground, discarded tools, the occasional toy… Lilith and Adam had no choice but to harden their hearts and keep going.

They spent two hours scouring the village, inspecting each and every house. It wasn't easy to tell apart evidence of the centaurs' activities from those of the humans, likely due to centaurs being relatively humanoid by monster standards. For the most part, it seemed that the centaurs had appropriated the humans' belongings for their own use. None of the houses had been left untouched… though Lilith couldn't really fault the centaurs for that. With the humans gone, the village would have simply wasted away if left uninhabited.

Eventually, they came across the graveyard where the entire human population had been buried. It was a single large expanse of grass, with hundreds of patches where the grass had been disturbed, indicating the presence of a grave.

Lilith felt another ache in her heart at the sight. The two of them had cremated the centaur corpses out of convenience, yet this unknown killer had taken the time to dig individual graves for each and every single one of their victims.

_But I shouldn't be worrying about that. This killer is the one who murdered this entire village, and several others, in the first place. We have to stop them. We have to…_

Upon closer inspection, none of the graves had been disturbed since they had been created. Perhaps the centaurs had been unwilling to eat old corpses… or perhaps they had been unnerved by whatever had caused the massacre.

But on that topic, the two of them were faced with the task of digging up a grave. And after already committing one taboo, the two of them were beginning to rethink their plans to commit a second one.

Lilith and Adam spent several minutes staring at the graves. There were hundreds of them, each and every one of them an individual grave rather than a mass one. It was more proof of just how strange these massacres were. Even if the culprit was skilled with earth magic, it would still take considerable effort to create so many separate graves.

Eventually, Adam said, "Lilith… if you're uncomfortable with this, I could handle it on my own—"

"No." Lilith answered flatly. "You and I are partners. If we're going to do this, then we're going to do this together."

With that settled, they fetched shovels from a nearby house and began to dig. They proceeded slowly and carefully, not wanting to damage the corpse even more than they had to.

A minute later, they had unearthed the corpse of a human man. He looked to have been in his twenties at the time of death, though it was hard to be certain due to the extensive decay of the corpse. Even as she looked, Lilith could see worms wriggling underneath the skin.

Lilith wanted to do nothing more than double over and vomit. But she forced herself to keep her eyes on the corpse. It was the least she could do after disturbing the rest of the dead.

The corpse was already well into the decomposition process. Nevertheless, it was apparent that it had no wounds of any kind. It also didn't show any obvious signs of sickness or starvation. The most likely possibility was that the man had been killed using magic, and more specifically, the kind of magic that left no physical mark.

Lilith attempted to scan the corpse for any traces of the spell used. She couldn't find anything, which could have been due to the extensive decay… or it could have been due to the culprit being extremely efficient in their magic, leaving no significant traces behind.

However, they couldn't be sure with just one corpse. They therefore dug up two more, those of a woman and a child. These were similar to the first corpse in that they had no wounds or any other obvious causes of death. After confirming this, Lilith and Adam buried the corpses again: they didn't want to leave the corpses decaying in the sun for any longer than was strictly necessary. For similar reasons, they didn't dig up any more corpses beyond these three.

"So… the culprit, or culprits, is skilled at using death magic," Adam said.

"And they went out of their way to be as gentle as possible," Lilith added. "There are many kinds of death magic, and the easier ones to use would leave obvious signs, like slitted throats. Whoever did this used a more advanced type, which means they must be _really_ skilled, given that they used it to kill an entire village."

"And if they went to the trouble of using advanced magic, it suggests they had a good reason to do so," Adam continued. "It may be the same reason for them burying each and every one of their victims."

"Hmm… I think the cult theory makes sense, based on this information," Lilith said. "If it was a cult with access to actual power, then they might be able to cast magic of this level, and it's possible that their rituals require them to kill in this way. And… are there any other theories that might fit?"

"Well, I don't think this could be the work of a new race of monsters, as it's too much effort for too little effect," Adam said. "It might terrify nearby villages, but as we saw along the way here, these massacres don't have much effect on the general population. Aside from that… there was that theory about a mad hero, but I doubt that. Certainly, some heroes might break under the strain of their duty, but those tend to be the less experienced ones, who wouldn't have the necessary skill."

Lilith glanced at Adam briefly. It seemed that, even after his change in outlook, Adam still had some faith in his fellow heroes. Though she couldn't exactly blame him, given her own complex feelings towards her race. And she also thought it was unlikely that a hero would be responsible for these massacres.

"Anyway, I think we've learned all that we can here," Lilith said. "Should we start following the centaur children again? I think we should still be able to follow their trail if we leave now."

"I agree," Adam said. "But we'll need to keep our distance, to avoid alerting them."

The two of them therefore left the village. They didn't run out of the village, but they did walk at a brisk pace.

After untying their horses, Lilith and Adam found the trail of the centaur children and began following it.

They might have done something unforgivable, but they were not going to simply ignore the consequences of it. They were going to do their best to make up for their crime, no matter how painful that might be.


	19. Chapter 19: Last Resort

Lilith shivered as she walked back to the camp. It was a cold night, cold enough that even a monster like her wouldn't be able to stand it without protective spells. And it didn't help that they had a smaller campfire than usual, to avoid being seen by the centaur children they were following.

"Dinner's ready," Adam said, holding out a cooked rabbit. "How are they right now?"

"The same as in the past three days," Lilith replied. "They've managed to find enough food for tonight, so we don't need to worry about that, at least."

Lilith accepted the rabbit and the two of them ate without any further words. The soft crackling of the fire was the only thing to break up the silence.

The past few days had been both tense and uneventful at the same time. Lilith and Adam had followed the centaur children northward across the continent, constantly taking care not be detected by them.

Thus far, they hadn't encountered any other people, neither humans nor monsters. This was at least partly because they were passing through a relatively uninhabited part of the continent. Whether the centaur children had chosen this route deliberately, or whether they were simply moving blindly, Lilith wasn't sure.

Back to the present, Lilith eventually decided to break the silence. She looked at Adam and, measuring her words carefully, said, "Adam. Would you like to… to trade more stories about each other?"

"That's alright," Adam said. "What would you like to hear about this time?"

"I'd like to hear more about the missions you did as a hero," Lilith said. She quickly raised a hand. "But only if you're fine with talking about that! And in exchange, I can tell you more about what my life was like… back in my village…"

Immediately after Lilith said this, she regretted it. But before she could take these words back, Adam nodded.

"Well… I've already told you many stories about myself, and that didn't cause you to abandon me, so I suppose that wouldn't hurt."

Lilith let out a sigh of relief. "I don't know what I would have done if you'd said no."

"Come on, we've already been together—working together for this long," Adam said. "And right now, we're both united in… in…"

Now it was Adam's turn to trail off awkwardly. Lilith grasped his hand to reassure him.

"I'd like to hear more about what you used to do," Lilith said.

Adam looked away. "Y-Yes. Let's see… Oh, there's one tale that would probably interest you. Three years ago, we received word of a gang of bandits that was plaguing local villages. We went out to deal with them, and also with any monsters that we happened to encounter along the way. By all indications, it was a routine mission, the kind that we'd already done a dozen times before."

"From the sounds of it, I'm guessing it didn't end up being a routine mission?" Lilith said.

"Far from it," Adam replied. "While we were travelling to the area, a storm approached and we stopped to take shelter. But then a group of lizardmen decided to take this opportunity to attack. We fought them off, but in all the chaos, Marcus and I were separated from the rest…"

For the next five minutes, Adam continued the colourful tale.

After roaming the country in search of the others, he and Marcus had stumbled upon the bandits they were looking for. They couldn't have defeated the bandits with just the two of them, but the storm had given them another option: triggering a landslide to bury the bandit camp.

The next day, they met up with their friends, who claimed to have been in a fight of their own. Supposedly, Hogan, John and Cutter had found a small village that turned out to be inhabited by a cult, one that sacrificed passing travellers to their god. They had spent the night dealing with this cult.

"…At least, that's what they claimed," Adam finished. "Marcus and I always wondered whether they'd made that part up, since they didn't want to admit that they hadn't done anything to help complete the mission."

Lilith wasn't sure how much this story might be embellished, but she laughed all the same. It felt like it had been an eternity since the last time she laughed.

"Alright, now it's my turn," Lilith said. She quickly finished off the last of her rabbit. "A long time ago, my friends and I decided to sneak out of the village to have fun. Until then, we weren't allowed to go too far from the village, so we never really had the chance to stretch our wings."

"Hmm… but your village was in Royal Makai, wasn't it?" Adam said. "There must have been other monster territories all around you."

"We were really just on the edge of Royal Makai, but that's right," Lilith said. "But we were young and stupid back then, so we didn't think of that at all. We spent compete with each other in how fast and how high we could go. We also competed to see how good we were at magic: we would pick out targets on the ground and try and hit them from the air."

Adam winced.

"Yeah, I feel the same way, looking back on that now," Lilith said. "It shouldn't be a surprise that we eventually drew the attention of another monster, one that we had no chance against: a griffon."

Lilith closed her eyes and remembered that incident. She and her friends had been having the time of their lives, when a terrifying screech suddenly pierced the air, and a massive shape ascended towards them. Wings that created a thunderous roar as they moved the air, a hooked beak large enough to bite a horse in two, sharp talons that reached out towards her… the sight had caused Lilith to freeze in place.

"The reason I'm still here today is because of Merida," Lilith continued. "She was always the most quick-witted out of us. She managed to hit the griffin in the eye with a fireball. That distracted it for a few seconds, and we hurried back to the village."

Lilith opened her eyes and looked straight at Adam. "Of course, that wasn't enough for us to escape. The griffin followed us through the air, twice as angry as before. A couple of us tried attacking it, but we weren't in any condition to aim properly, and the griffin wasn't stupid enough to get hit again. We managed to make it back to the village, but that was only because the griffin was injured and couldn't fly in a straight line. Anyway, once we made it back, the adult succubi drove it off with a barrage of spells. We were welcomed back with hugs… and then we were punished by not being allowed to fly at all for a week. But we did deserve it. If we hadn't been lucky, then it's possible that none of us would have made it back."

Adam nodded in an understanding manner. "We all make mistakes like that at some point. It can't be easy, being a parent…"

_That's certainly true,_ Lilith thought. _And it wasn't even the first or the last time that I did something stupid like that. But despite all that, mother never gave up on me…_

Lilith clenched her fists tightly enough to draw blood. Before she could do anything else, Adam grasped her hands gently.

"I'm sorry you had to be reminded of that," Adam said.

"Hey, I'm the one who suggested this in the first place," Lilith said. "I'm fine. But… well, thanks."

Adam withdrew his hands, but he continued looking at Lilith. "You know… after hearing about that, I have an even better impression of you now."

"You have a better impression of me because I once did something incredibly stupid?" Lilith asked.

Adam laughed. "No, I meant something entirely different. You learned about the dangers of the world at a young age. But that didn't stop you from eventually leaving your village and setting out on your own.

"That's… that's just because I couldn't stand it there any longer," Lilith insisted, looking away in embarrassment. "There wasn't anything _brave_ or _admirable_ about what I did."

"Well, if it makes you uncomfortable, then I'll drop this topic," Adam said. "Good night, Lilith. I'll take the first watch."

"…Good night, Adam."

Lilith lay down and wrapped herself in a blanket. She closed her eyes.

The night was cold, while the campfire was too small and the blanket too thin to offer much warmth. But for the first time in three days, Lilith was able to sleep soundly.

-ooo-

The next day, Lilith and Adam broke camp early and began following the centaur children again.

On that topic, the centaur children followed a routine: they would travel some distance, stop to rest and eat, then repeat this process until nightfall, when they would find a sheltered spot to rest for the night. They never attempted to set up any permanent structures, suggesting that they were still running away from the village where their parents had been killed.

But on the noon of the fourth day day, something happened to break the routine, something that Lilith had been dreading.

In the distance, Lilith sensed multiple spirit energy signatures: it was a group of humans. Merchants, judging from their clothing and the wagons they were riding. They were roughly three hundred paces in front, and the centaur children would soon encounter them.

"Adam—there's humans ahead!" Lilith warned.

Cursing, Adam brought his horse to a stop. "What should we do? Should we intervene, try to prevent them from encountering each other?"

"That… would probably be the safest option," Lilith said. "But it would probably let the centaurs realise that we're following them. Even if it didn't, they'd be much warier than before."

"There's no easy option… but considering the circumstances, that's not surprising," Adam said. "In that case, why don't we remain hidden and watch? It's possible that the centaur children will remember my warning and avoid the humans."

After considering this suggestion for a moment, Lilith nodded. The two of them hid themselves behind a nearby ridge.

However, Lilith couldn't fully dispel the concern in her heart. She remembered Adam's warning to the centaur children. She remembered Adam's stories, the ones in which he and his friends had slaughtered monster children. And she imagined her own friends lying on the ground, bleeding from countless lacerations.

Lilith quickly shook her head in an effort to clear her mind.

_No… I'm only thinking about that again because of what I said last night. And I've already made up my mind. Even if… Even if they always treated me well, I'm no longer one of them. And… And Adam wouldn't do that again, right?_

There wasn't time for any more dwelling on the past. The centaurs had now stopped in place and, from their expressions and the way they were gesturing to each other, were nervously discussing the approaching humans. Lilith shifted her gaze slightly and she saw that the humans had also stopped.

This situation lasted for perhaps five seconds. Then the centaurs chose the safe option and fled…

Was what Lilith _hoped_ would happen next. But instead of doing that, the centaurs let out battle cries and galloped towards the humans. And the humans reacted by drawing their own weapons.

Lilith quickly glanced at Adam, fearing the worst… but he had yet to make any move. Judging from the look on his face, he was just as conflicted as she was.

That was reassuring in one sense. However, it still left the question of what, if anything, they should do about the situation.

For several tense seconds, Lilith watched the centaurs and the humans close in on each other. The centaurs were merely children, but they would still be stronger than the average human, and they had the monster instinct to kill and devour humans. On the other hand, the humans were armed with spears and clubs. One side would eventually win… but not without severe casualties.

Lilith recalled the battle from three days ago, the battle in which she'd killed the parents of these very same centaurs. She recalled the chaos, the blood, the hatred, the death.

_I won't let that happen again!_

Lilith drew upon the energy stored in her diamond once more. She spread her wings, took flight and then landed in between the centaurs and the humans. Both sides skidded to a stop, but Lilith didn't attempt to speak to them. Instead, she slammed the base of her spear on the ground, sending out a wave of demonic energy.

As the supercharged sleep spell washed over them, the centaurs and humans swayed, and one by one they fell to the ground. Fortunately, the grass of the plain cushioned their falls.

Lilith breathed heavily as she lifted up her spear. It wasn't due to the strain of the sleep spell, as she'd cast far more powerful spells in the past. Rather, she was only just realising what she'd done… and the fact that she had no idea what to do next.

Adam hurried over. "Lilith, are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine," Lilith replied. "But… what should we do about them now?"

The two looked at each other nervously, then looked at the numerous sleeping figures. Due to the power behind Lilith's spell, they wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Still, they could hardly be left alone forever.

Lilith approached one of the centaur children and leaned down to take a closer look. She was hardly an expert on centaur health, but even she could tell that this one was thin to an unhealthy extent. The same was true for the other centaur children. Additionally, on closer inspection, Lilith noticed that the centaur was shivering in what could only be fear.

_A nightmare… and it's all my fault,_ Lilith thought.

Lilith felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Adam, who confirmed that the human merchants were sleeping soundly.

A minute passed, in which they discussed various options. They could move the centaurs and humans far apart, try to make them think it was all a dream—they were sleeping deeply enough that they wouldn't wake up even if they were treated roughly. They could wake the centaurs and humans to talk to them, attempt to reach an understanding. They could kill the centaur children now—they'd already shown that they were willing to attack humans despite their own desperate situation. But they rejected each and every one of these options.

Lilith sighed and looked at the centaur children again. _There's no good options at all. Unless we get more divine miracles, there'll never be any good options. As long as monsters have this instinctual drive to attack humans, there can never be peace between our races._

On that topic, Lilith was reminded of that time when she'd revealed her secret to Adam. He'd accepted her, but that was because they had already known each other for a long time, even risked their lives for each other. It would be unreasonable to expect other humans to do the same thing.

_And before that… the reason I told him that was because, before that, he'd told me his secret. His fear that other humans might find out about us… Back then, what did I say to reassure him? Oh, right, I said that I could remove the memories of those humans—_

Lilith froze. Another option came to her mind. It was a repulsive one—this sort of magic was what succubi used to turn loyal heroes into drooling slaves—but the situation was bad enough that she couldn't immediately reject it.

Adam tapped on Lilith's shoulder again. "Lilith, what is it?" he asked. "You look like you've thought of something."

"No, it's nothing—nothing that would work," Lilith said. _I can't do that. It's more than just removing some memories, it would mean changing one of the most basic parts of their minds, something so basic that all monsters have it. If I changed this, then… then they would essentially be different people. It would be as good as killing them._

"Lilith, please," Adam said. "You can at least tell me what it is. If it wouldn't work, then we can decide on that together."

Lilith still hesitated for a moment, but she eventually relented. After all, the two of them were partners.

"Alright. I just thought—I just thought that I could try changing their—the centaurs'—minds, to stop them from seeing humans as prey."

Lilith regretted these words the moment she finished saying them. She quickly followed up with, "Forget what I said, there's no way we could—"

"Actually… perhaps we should try that," Adam said.

"Wait, what?"

"I think we should give that suggestion some serious thought."

For a moment, Lilith wondered if her partner had been replaced by someone else. But the man before her undoubtedly had Adam's unique spirit energy signature.

"I'm sorry, you probably weren't expecting me to say that," Adam said, shuffling his feet nervously.

"That's putting it mildly," Lilith said. "I know that this is a desperate situation… and I know I'm the one who suggested it in the first place… but…"

"It's a surprise to me as well," Adam said. "I've certainly changed since we first met… most importantly, I now know about the monster instinct to attack humans. Or rather, I had some inkling of it before, but I never thought that it was possible for monsters to overcome it. You managed to do that, as did those sea monsters, but it's still not an easy problem to solve. But if the problem arises within the mind, then it's logical that it has to be solved by altering the mind."

Adam shook his head. "I'll admit, this entire situation is unbelievable. A hero _encouraging_ a monster to alter the minds of others… But right now, it looks like a viable option to me. It's a much better option than having to killing children again."

"…I see," Lilith said. "I never thought of it from your perspective."

"But, in the end, this is something you would be doing," Adam said. "I have no knowledge of how such magic works. It's your right to make this decision."

Lilith lowered her eyes to the ground. She spent more than a minute thinking: time was one of the very few luxuries available to them right now.

_This would be my first time doing something like this for real. I know the theory, at least…_

Succubus education involved learning about all types of mind magic, and Lilith had learned it just like her peers. She could hardly have refused, as that would have drawn unwanted suspicion. However, she had so far limited herself to sleep spells and other simple effects. Trying to reshape someone's mind was something she never had the need to do, and it was a complex task that would require experience to do effectively.

_And Adam's right… it's the only option we really have. In the first place, it's not right that monsters are forced to attack humans, even children. This instinct, this desire… it's something that should never exist in the first place._

Lilith looked at the centaur children once more. She had killed their parents, and now she was planning to change them on a fundamental level. But in their current state, they would continue to attack humans, and would almost certainly die early deaths.

_That's settled, then… The only problem left is that I've never tried this before… I'll have to do this slowly and carefully. I have the time, at least._

Finally, Lilith turned to Adam and said, "Alright. I'm going to do this."

Adam nodded. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Keep an eye on the others—while I'm doing this, I'll be completely focused on one centaur at a time," Lilith replied. "If anyone looks like they're about to wake up, call me and I'll put them to sleep again."

"And how long do you think this will take?" Adam asked.

"I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took more than an hour," Lilith replied. "That's why you'll have to watch them."

With that settled, they implemented their plan. Lilith sat down next to one of the centaur children, a large boy with a brown coat, and placed her hands on his head. Adam stood next to her, in a position where he could see all of the sleeping people and also alert Lilith in the event that any began to wake.

Lilith took a deep breath, then took the plunge into the depths of another mind.

-ooo-

It had been a very long time since Lilith had done anything like this. Delving into someone else's mind was difficult and dangerous for all involved. Back in her village, Lilith had done this just three times, at the very end of her mind magic training. By the same token, she'd had other succubi delve into her mind three times.

_It was lucky that I already knew how to hide my own innermost thoughts by that point,_ Lilith thought. _If anyone had found out what I really thought of them… but that doesn't matter now. I have to focus._

Lilith looked around. She was currently surrounded by a multi-coloured fog, one that was filled with numerous indistinct shapes. This was the expected result for a mind that was currently sleeping.

_Now, I need to find what I'm looking for. To do that, I need to do some exploring._

Lilith imagined her own everyday life: travelling across the country, meeting all kinds of people, dealing with the occasional bandit or monster. Her surroundings immediately changed, the fog disappearing and being replaced by wooden buildings and centaurs.

Lilith breathed a sigh of relief. It was just as she had learned: by thinking intensely about a certain topic, she could view the portion of the target's mind that was most similar to that.

For the next few minutes, Lilith walked around the mental construct representing the village of Wisterion.

Everything looked… _normal_. There were centaurs cooking food, stitching up damaged clothing, maintaining their weapons, hauling in loads of firewood, gossiping about recent events, competing in races and challenging each other to mock fights. The only clue to the true nature of it all was the faint outlines of every centaur and object: it was like she was viewing the village through a dirty window.

Lilith eventually spotted the centaur boy whose mind she was in. He was galloping through the village with two of his friends, laughing as he tried to stay in the lead.

_Alright. Now, I need to find the source of the instinct, the part of him that wants to kill humans no matter what._

Unfortunately, the most efficient way to do that was for Lilith to bring out the same instinct in herself.

Lilith closed her eyes and relaxed. She thought of the lessons she'd received from the adult succubi, the lessons about how she should treat humans.

_I did my best to ignore those lessons, at the time… but was that really the right decision? There are so many humans out there, after all… there's nothing wrong with indulging once in a while—_

Lilith quickly opened her eyes. The scene had changed, with the centaur boy now sitting in front of an older, female centaur and being lectured.

Now that she was closer to her goal, Lilith dug her fingernails into her palms, using the pain to help her focus.

"…and remember, what should you do if you see a human?" asked the older centaur, who seemed to be the boy's mother.

"I should run back and tell everyone about it!" the centaur boy said. "Then you can all kill the humans, and we can have a feast!"

"That's right!"

Trying her best not to pay attention to this conversation, Lilith performed a complex series of gestures in the air with her finger. Countless images appeared in the air: each displayed a different scene and was framed in purple light. These were links to thoughts, emotions, other memories… essentially, every aspect of the centaur boy's mind that was related to this memory.

_Good, I didn't make any mistakes with that spell. Now, I just need to find the right one…_

Lilith examined each of the links. Some of them showed other lessons, and there was one that showed the centaurs enjoying a feast of human flesh, which she quickly dismissed with a wave of her hand.

Eventually, Lilith arrived at an indistinct image, one that resembled a pool of dark water. If Lilith remembered correctly, this appearance indicated a fundamental desire such as hunger or thirst.

Lilith approached the link. It remained as indistinct as before, but she felt a sense of trepidation simply by looking at it. However, to confirm the true nature of what lay beyond, she would need to examine it directly.

_I really wish I didn't have to do this. If only there was a spell to test the nature of one of these from a distance… well, maybe something like that exists, but I never got the chance to learn it._

_Alright. I can't waste any more time._

Lilith reached out her left hand and pushed it into the mental link. The moment she made contact, her own mind was assaulted by a barrage of overwhelming sensations.

A human lay before her, one who bled from numerous wounds. The delicious smell of blood filled the air… she just _had_ to have a taste…

Lilith wrenched her hand out of the link. She took several deep breaths.

_Found it. Now, I need to get rid of it somehow…_

For the better part of a minute, Lilith reviewed the various spells she knew of that could alter a person's mind. She discarded those that were useless for the present task, like the ones that specifically altered memories. Eventually, she narrowed it down to two options.

First, Lilith aligned the fingers of her right hand and then concentrated her energy in this same hand. Her right hand became surrounded by a purple aura, causing it to resemble an enchanted blade. With her preparation complete, Lilith moved her hand to the side of the mental link and attempted to slide her hand down. This was the simplest and cleanest method of removing an aspect of someone's mind, and was analogous to cutting out necrotic flesh from a wound so it could heal properly.

But it didn't work in the slightest. Lilith couldn't bring her hand down at all: it was like trying to cut through a thick tree with her bare hand.

_That's… not exactly unexpected,_ Lilith thought. _It must be very strongly connected to the rest of this boy's mind. Makes sense, since this is something so fundamental that all monsters have it._

Lilith then moved on to the second method. She began to fill her mind with thoughts of _not_ harming humans: thoughts of talking to them, understanding them, living together with them. After thirty or so seconds of this, she placed her hands on the mental link again. This method involved overwriting a part of the target's mind using thoughts that were the complete opposite. It was more difficult to use than the previous method, but—if Lilith's lessons were correct—it would work better against stubborn targets.

As before, Lilith felt the instinct to attack humans. This time, it clashed violently with her own thoughts of coexistence with humans, giving her a severe headache. Still, she persevered.

_Come on… this has to work!_

_I can't fail here! I have to help this boy! I have to show him that humans aren't prey! They're meant for much more pleasant things—_

_No, that's definitely not what I'm trying to do! I have to show him that us monsters don't have to attack humans! This whole conflict is completely pointless, all it does is rip apart families and leave behind orphans! We don't have to—_

Suddenly, Lilith was hit by what could only be described as a mental sledgehammer. She staggered, but still did not withdraw her hand from the mental link.

_What was that!? It was—It was like someone was actively resisting me! But there's no way this boy could be doing that—if he had that kind of mental strength, he wouldn't have fallen asleep so easily!_

Lilith clenched her teeth and continued. She had to be close now—

-ooo-

_The being was immense, towering over even the tallest of trees. It was surrounded by blinding golden light, making it impossible to look at directly._

_It stood at the peak of a small hill. At the base of this hill was a multitude of others, mere specks in comparison. These varied greatly in shape and size._

_The being simply raised one hand. With that gesture, the others all began to move, scattering into the world…_

-ooo-

In the next moment, Lilith was surrounded by the bright green of the plain again, and Adam was standing over her with an anxious expression.

"Lilith? Did you succeed?" Adam asked.

Lilith took a few seconds to answer, as she was still trying to process what she'd just seen.

"…I didn't," Lilith admitted. "And at the end, I saw…"

"Saw what?"

Lilith tried to answer, only to stop in her tracks. She couldn't clearly recall what had happened at the end of her time in the centaur boy's mind.

"I… I can't remember," Lilith said. "But what I did find out was that I couldn't get rid of his desire to attack humans. That doesn't make any sense… there shouldn't be _anything_ that resistant. Even if this boy was somehow a master of mental magic, I still should have been able to do _something_."

Upon hearing these words, Adam was also surprised. "That's… hmm. Is there anything else you could try? Could you try to alter some other part of their minds?"

"There's a few other things I could try," Lilith said. "I could increase their desire for survival, make them fear humans even more than they want to attack them… but the problem with those is that it won't help them coexist with humans. They'd just avoid humans at all costs."

The two of them remained silent for a while.

"That might be our best—relatively speaking—option," Adam said. "Keeping them away from humans would keep them and their potential victims safe. It's not a long-term solution—but it's the only one available to us at the moment."

Lilith exhaled. "Alright. How long has it been since I started?"

"About fifteen minutes."

Lilith nodded, drew on more energy from her diamond, and re-applied the sleep spell on the centaur children and the human merchants. Finally, she re-entered the centaur boy's mind.

-ooo-

Now that she had a little more experience, and now that she had a simpler goal in mind, Lilith was able to proceed more quickly. It took her just under a minute to find the area of the centaur boy's mind that handled fear. This was a dark forest filled with voracious monsters and bloodthirsty humans, but these merely skulked around in the shadows and made no attempts to attack Lilith. As representations of another person's fears, they posed no threat to her.

In fact, the representations of humans were what Lilith was aiming for. Whenever she encountered one, she placed her hand on it and filled it with her own demonic energy, causing it to grow many times in size—though the growth was far from even. Some gained heads the size of their torsos, others immensely long arms that dragged along the ground, and others had mismatched legs that forced them to limp.

By the time Lilith was finished, the forest was now being shaken by the footsteps of grotesque giants that barely resembled humans anymore. The monsters and even the darkness of the forest seemed like nothing in comparison.

_…Alright, this should be enough,_ Lilith thought._ Now, I just need to do it for the others._

-ooo-

It took even less time to alter the minds of the remaining centaur children. In that sense, altering minds was no different from killing: the task only grew easier with experience.

When Lilith finally finished her work, she stepped away from the last centaur and then fell backwards. Adam caught her gently.

"Lilith! Are you alright!?" Adam asked.

"Yes… just a little tired," Lilith said. She forced herself to stand again. "Anyway… we need to check if this actually worked."

The two of them discussed their next plan, then put that plan into action. They moved the centaur children about a hundred paces away, taking care to avoid waking any of them. Finally, they hid themselves and Lilith undid her sleep spell.

One of the centaur children, the boy who was the first to be altered, stirred. He stumbled to his feet and then looked around. He looked surprised when he saw his fellows still sleeping, and then shocked when he spotted the humans in the distance.

The centaur boy quickly woke up the others. The other centaurs also looked shocked upon seeing the humans. Once they were all awake, they ran off without looking back.

Once the centaurs were firmly out of sight, Lilith undid the sleep spell on the human merchants. One by one, they woke up and got to their feet. They looked at each other with confused expressions. After a brief discussion—the contents of which couldn't be heard from this distance—they began moving again. A few minutes later, they too were out of sight.

That should have been the end of it all. The human merchants seemed to have treated their encounter with the centaurs as a strange dream. The centaur children would certainly never be a threat to humans again, as shown by them being unwilling to attack even sleeping humans. It was the closest thing to a happy ending that they could hope to achieve. But it didn't feel satisfying in the slightest.

For in the end, Lilith had broken her promise to herself, and resorted to acting just like every other succubus.


	20. Chapter 20: To the East

_AN: Alright, so there's a minor retcon in this chapter. Back in Chapter 17, I had our protagonists mention that they would ask the dwarf blacksmith Kalk about how to get to Zipangu. However, I forgot to include that in the following chapter. This chapter retcons that they did ask him about that._

_Also, I'll be a bit busy for the next month or so, meaning that future chapters may be delayed._

* * *

Adam pulled the skewers from the campfire and examined the hunks of rabbit meat on them. Both of them looked and smelled ready, so he passed one of them to Lilith. However, the succubus didn't accept it at first.

"Lilith? Dinner's ready."

"Huh? Oh… thanks."

Lilith grasped the skewer and then, instead of eating, simply stared into the fire.

Seeing his partner like that, Adam was also unable to eat. At the same time, he also had no idea of what to do in this situation.

_I've been trained in how to counsel people who've killed for the first time, or who've lost loved ones to monsters,_ Adam thought. _But this situation… The only time my lessons even touched on the subject of mind control, we were being taught how to help those who'd fallen under a monster's control. Even that was several years ago, and I've never had the need to actually use that lesson._

_But I have to do something. I can't just leave her like this._

Adam spent a few minutes thinking of what to say, during which he completely consumed the meat on his skewer. Once he was done, he opened his mouth nervously.

"Lilith, are you not feeling hungry tonight?"

It took a few seconds for Lilith to respond, and when she did, her voice had little strength to it. "Mm… sorry, I don't think I'll be able to eat anything tonight. It's fine, I can go without dinner for one night."

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you," Adam said, trying his best not to sound intrusive.

"Thanks… maybe tomorrow," Lilith said, not meeting Adam's eyes.

Adam hesitated, but decided not to press the issue. Trying to force someone in trouble to talk could easily end up making the situation worse: he'd heard stories of once-firm friends whose relationships had been permanently severed thanks to one bad decision.

"Alright, then I suppose we should turn in for the night," Adam said. "I can take the first watch."

"Actually… instead of that, how about we leave security to the spells I set up, and both of us sleep for the whole night?" Lilith suggested. "We've been running ourselves ragged these past few days, so we could really use the extra sleep."

Adam nodded, and the two of them lay down without exchanging another word.

It wasn't possible for Adam to fall asleep immediately. He remained awake for some time, during which the campfire consumed the last of its fuel and died.

-ooo-

_He was standing in the middle of a crowded street, one that was lit brightly by the noonday sun. All around him were humans and monsters, but they weren't embroiled in mortal combat as one would normally expect. Rather, they were walking side by side, hand in hand, talking to each other as equals, playing together, laughing together._

_Adam closed his eyes for a few seconds, then reopened them, but the impossible sights remained in his vision. He began slowly walking along the street._

_To his left was a massive Arachne, selling clothes made from its own silk to human customers._

_To his right was a maternal-looking woman taking care of a group of goblin children. She sighed in a long-suffering manner as the children ran around her legs with the boundless energy of the young._

_Flying overhead was a flock of harpies carrying human children in their talons. The children were laughing in joy as they zoomed through the air._

_At the end of the street was a large plaza with an ornate fountain in the centre. Standing next to this fountain, looking at the flowing water, was the one Adam was looking for._

_Lilith turned around as Adam approached. She had a wide smile on her face, a smile just a fraction too wide to be natural._

_"__Well? Isn't this great, Adam? Now we don't have to fight anymore… nobody has to. Now we can all just live in peace."_

_Adam looked around again. Indeed, everyone around him was full of smiles. There were no signs of any poverty, sickness, injury or other misfortune. But it was more than that… no matter where he looked, he couldn't find even the slightest hint of negative emotion. There were no merchants arguing with customers over the price of a good. Nobody complained about the heat of the sun. There was only undiluted, chokingly sweet happiness._

_Then Adam looked at Lilith again, gazing deep into her eyes. There was only the appearance of happiness in them: behind that was fatigue, sadness and fear._

_"__Lilith," Adam began._

_"__Yes?"_

_"__I know that this is just a dream," Adam continued. "And… And I know that this isn't really you. I know you would never try to enter my mind without permission, nor would you try to alter minds on this scale—I'm sure that you're not even _capable_ of the latter."_

_Lilith continued smiling, but didn't respond._

_Adam paused, but decided to continue. Even if this was just his own mental construct of Lilith, he had to let these words out._

_"__I hope that… in the morning… we can talk again," Adam said. "I don't want to lose you."_

_-ooo-_

The next morning, Adam woke up to find himself alone. For a moment he feared that the worst had happened, but then he sensed Lilith's demonic energy off in the distance. He stood up and saw her roughly a hundred paces away, bending down to gather food.

A minute later, Lilith returned with some handfuls of wild tubers and herbs. "Good morning. I just—since you prepared last night's dinner, I thought I'd handle breakfast."

"Yes… thank you."

Lilith started the fire again and cooked the food for a few minutes. She also heated up the rabbit meat from last night. Once breakfast was ready, she passed half of it to Adam and they began to eat.

Lilith had regained her appetite and she now ate at a steady pace, which was a good sign. Still, Adam would need to be careful with his words: an indirect approach would probably be best.

After they finished breakfast, Adam said, "So, Lilith, where do you think we should go to next?"

"Well… we went to that village in the first place because we wanted to find out what was causing these strange massacres," Lilith said. "We did find some clues, but not enough to really solve this mystery… should we keep investigating this?"

"That's one option," Adam said. "However, the only other villages to have experienced these massacres are far from here. If I recall correctly, the closest one is at least a month's travel away."

"Hmm… then what do you suggest?"

"Do you remember Zipangu, that country where humans and monsters coexist? We originally planned to go there after dealing with these strange massacres. However, it… it might be better to go there now instead. I believe that we may find some of the answers we're looking for there."

Lilith lowered her head, and for an instant Adam was terrified that he'd said the wrong thing. Fortunately, her next action was a small nod.

"That sounds like our best option. Let's see… how do we get there again…?"

They recalled the words of the dwarf blacksmith Kalk, the one person they knew who'd gone to Zipangu:

_It's nearly impossible to get there—makes sense, since otherwise everybody'd know about it. The place is a small island some distance off the east coast, far enough that ships won't see it unless they're deliberately heading for it. And its own people work to keep it hidden, otherwise they'd be attacked by—well, by pretty much everyone._

_So how did I get there? Well, I made it there by accident—my ship sank and I was lucky enough to wash up on its shores. But after spending time in Zipangu, I learned that they aren't totally isolated from the mainland. Some of them are interested in the outside world, and sail every now and then to a port on the east coast to trade. That's how I got back, they were nice enough to let me board one of their ships—but that's also how you can find your way there. If you go to those ports and look around, sooner or later you'll find one o' them—they're a little shorter than most humans on the mainland, have a different skin tone and wear a weird sort of clothing called a "kimono". Once you find them, you could try 'n' convince them to let you sail with them, but it might be easier to just follow their ship and fly to the island…_

It was, to say the least, a long and difficult process. Getting to the nearest coastal city would take three days, and finding one of Zipangu's traders could potentially take a week or more.

"All things considered, it will likely take just as long as if we were to continue investigating the massacres," Adam said. "But I believe we should at least try. There, we may be able to find the answers to… to the questions we face."

Adam looked straight at Lilith. There was still uncertainty in the expression of his partner, but there was also a clear resolve. And while Adam didn't have a mirror at the moment, he suspected that he had an identical expression on his own face.

"Alright. In that case, we'd better get moving right away," Lilith said. She stood up and began packing.

"And… I'd like to say one last thing before we go," Adam said, in a slightly quieter voice than before.

Lilith continued packing without meeting Adam's gaze.

"We've been travelling together for many months now," Adam continued. "I trust you to not only fight by my side, but also to keep me from straying from my path. And… I just want you to know that I'm here for you as well. As long as we're together, I won't let you fall."

Lilith finished her packing and still didn't look at Adam. But when she began walking, she passed close to him and whispered "Thank you".

-ooo-

It took them just two days to make it back to the coastal village of Wisterion: now that they no longer had to worry about keeping themselves concealed, they could go at a faster pace. There was a large town about a day's travel north of here.

But before moving on, Adam and Lilith stopped outside the village for lunch. During this meal, Lilith looked into the distance numerous times, watching the crashing waves of the sea. Eventually, she had a shocked look on her face and abruptly stood up.

"Lilith? What is it?" Adam said, already reaching for his sword.

"The sea… Zipangu is on the other side of it, right?" Lilith said. "From what Kalk said, it's an island… and the sea is Poseidon's domain, isn't it?"

Adam stood up as well, his lunch forgotten. "You're right—I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!"

"Hey, I also didn't think of it until just now—calling on a goddess isn't the kind of thing we do every day," Lilith pointed out. "And we don't know if this will work yet…"

"Still, it's worth a try," Adam said.

They both opened up their packs and took out the charms of Poseidon. Even though these charms included seaweed in their construction, they showed no signs of deterioration, presumably thanks to the power within.

Of course, neither Adam nor Lilith was quite sure how to initiate contact with a goddess. They tried calling to Poseidon out loud while holding the charms, and when that didn't work, they tried mentally calling out to the goddess. That still produced no results.

Eventually, Adam had an idea. "Why don't we go to the sea itself and try again? When we last heard from Poseidon, weren't we in the water?"

Lilith looked down at the charm, then at the sea, then swore.

"Well, I suppose we're now equal when it comes to not thinking of something," Adam said, stifling a laugh.

The two of them headed down to the coast. They stopped briefly at the edge of the water: the memories of everything that had happened the last time they entered the sea caused them to hesitate. But they couldn't hesitate forever, and soon they stepped in.

Just like before, the water offered no hindrance to their breathing, vision or movement. Nevertheless, it felt like an entirely different world, one where they could escape the worries of dry land.

Adam took a deep breath, then repeated his call for aid:

"O Poseidon, goddess of the sea, please hear our—"

"I hear you. What is the matter?"

Adam and Lilith both jumped in surprise, then slowly sank back down to the seabed. The crystals in the charms they were holding now shone with faint blue light.

"I—I can't believe it finally worked!" Lilith cried out. "Oh, ah—sorry for being rude, I—"

"There's no need to apologise," Poseidon said, with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Adam was dumbfounded. As part of his training as a hero, he had received multiple lessons on how to address the divine, and all of these lessons had emphasised absolute reverence. Yet the goddess he was talking to right now was acting like… like a mother being patient with unruly children!

"Then… how should we address you?" Adam asked.

"Just 'Poseidon' will be fine," Poseidon said. "More importantly, why have you called on me?"

"Ah, yes… We wish to travel to the land of Zipangu," Adam said. "From what we've heard, it's a land where—"

"—Where humans and monsters live together in peace," Poseidon said. "I am aware of it, though I should point out that it is not simply land, but the surrounding sea where this peace exists."

"I… I see," Adam said. "In any case, we were wondering how to reach Zipangu. Could you… would you be willing to show us the way there?"

"I can certainly do that… but is that all?" Poseidon said. "Tell me, do you wish to go there at once?"

"That's right," Lilith replied.

"Then it would be more expedient for me to send you there personally," Poseidon said.

Suddenly, Adam and Lilith were picked up from the seabed by a water current. They began moving away from the coast, slowly at first, but their speed gradually increased.

"You-You're sending us there yourself!?" Adam half-said, half-shouted. "Th-This is too much for the likes of us!"

"This is the least I can do for you," Poseidon insisted. "I know that you are both tired, physically and mentally. I could discern this the moment you entered my realm."

Adam felt uneasy. He considered telling Poseidon everything that had happened regarding the centaurs: it was the least he could do to repay the goddess for all the help she provided them. But at the same time, he feared that she would be angered by what they'd done… and being the target of the sea goddess' wrath, when he and Lilith were currently _in_ the sea, was a terrifying prospect.

"You need not explain yourselves if it discomforts you," Poseidon said gently. "You may simply relax and take in the sights."

Adam still felt some unease, but Poseidon's words had largely reassured him. He looked over at Lilith, who was floating beside him, and grasped her hand. She returned the gesture, clutching his fingers tightly.

A few moments later, Adam heard something that he could have sworn was laughter, but it was almost entirely drowned out by the rushing sounds of the water.

-ooo-

A short time later—Adam wasn't sure if it was thirty minutes, one hour or two hours later—a dark mass came into view ahead, showing that they had reached land. The water current, and by extension Adam and Lilith, slowed.

"Here is the island of Zipangu," Poseidon announced.

"This is… we can't thank you enough for all the help you've provided us," Adam said.

"Again, this is the least I can do for you," Poseidon replied. "You two set an example that others will hopefully follow."

These words filled Adam with an incredible pride, the likes of which he had never felt before. He didn't even need to look at his partner to know that she was feeling the same way.

The water current gently pushed Adam and Lilith up to the surface, then towards the shore.

"Please explore Zipangu carefully, you may find the answers to your questions there," Poseidon said, her voice growing faint. "Farewell, and may the best of fortune be with you…"

The two of them arrived at the shallows and planted their feet on the seabed. They waded forward until they reached a sandy beach, then turned to face the sea. There was no longer any sign of divine intervention: now, there were just small waves gently breaking on the sand.

Lilith was the first to break the silence. "…I still can't believe that just happened."

"Neither can I," Adam said, shaking his head.

"But there's no denying that it _did_ happen. And now… now we're finally here, in Zipangu."

Adam turned around. From a moment's observation, he could tell that he was in a foreign land: before him was a forest of plants that he'd never seen before, and the air was filled with the calls of strange birds.

"How do you feel now, Lilith?" Adam asked.

"Well, I feel some regret at not coming here earlier," Lilith said, her lips quirked in a small smile. "But other than that… I feel much better than before, like I can see everything clearly again. Being reminded that we have an actual goddess backing us helps a lot."

Adam smiled as well. "In that case, shall we begin our exploration?"

"You don't have to ask me twice."

The two of them began walking inland, away from the relaxing environment of the sea. Despite this, there was a distinct energy in their movements that had previously been lacking.

Adam and Lilith would undoubtedly face many more trials in the future. Trying to bring about coexistence between humans and monsters was a seemingly impossible task. But so long as they were together, it felt like nothing could stand in their way.


	21. Chapter 21: Kingdom of the Sun

_AN: I originally planned this chapter to be in the 3000-3500 word range, but I had new ideas while writing and rewriting it, resulting in the current 5200+ words. This seems to be happening to me a lot with this particular story... Anyway, please read and review._

* * *

For the next half an hour, Adam and Lilith walked inland at a leisurely pace, simply taking in the sensations.

They passed through coastal woodland. Initially, this included types of trees that Adam was familiar with, their seeds having presumably been carried here by wind or water currents. But further in, the trees were mostly replaced by clumps of a strange woody grass. The community of flowers growing on the forest floor also changed, though Adam noticed this more through scent rather than sight: the inland flowers produced a cocktail of fragrances that seemed to fill his head with a relaxing warmth.

The animals were similarly different. Perched high up on tree branches were small forms that initially caused Adam to reach for his sword, fearing that they were monsters, but they turned out to be monkeys with red faces. At one point, a small black bear emerged from the bushes, cautiously examined the intruders to its territory for a moment, then slinked out of sight. And for every animal that Adam could see, he could hear half a dozen more: singing, shrieking, screeching away as if their lives depended on it.

Eventually, they came across one of the native monsters. Lilith noticed the demonic energy signature first and notified Adam, and together they cautiously made their way forward.

Perched in a tree and picking fruit was a large avian monster with wings, taloned feet and black feathers: a harpy. Judging from the body shape, they appeared to be a male. But unlike the other harpies Adam had seen—and most of the other monsters, in fact—this one was wearing clothes. Specifically, he was wearing a sort of green garment that included wide sleeves to accommodate his wings.

Adam and Lilith stared at the harpy for several seconds. The harpy stared back. Then the harpy took off and flew away, screaming. Adam didn't recognise the words, but he could understand the tone and the actions well enough.

"He saw us as enemies, invaders to Zipangu," Adam said. "It must be rare to see strangers in this country."

"I can't catch up with him—not unless I use magic on him, and that probably isn't the best idea right now," Lilith said.

They began walking in the direction of the black harpy's flight.

"We should be ready if he brings back reinforcements," Adam said. "That said, we should also be careful not to appear threatening."

"You can do that just by not holding your sword," Lilith said. "But if the people here have any idea what succubi can do, then they wouldn't feel safe no matter what I do."

"Perhaps… but we still have to try."

After a couple of minutes, the two of them heard the sounds of people approaching, causing Lilith to cast a translation spell over herself and Adam. Then multiple figures emerged from the vegetation ahead. They were a mix of humans and monsters, armed with tools like axes and shovels rather than proper weapons. The monsters all wore some clothing, similar to the initial harpy, and they showed no hostility towards the humans beside them. Most of the monsters were large humanoids with horns growing from their heads and either red or blue skin, but there was also the black-feathered harpy from before.

Adam was excited by the sight of this cooperation, to the point of almost forgetting that this group of humans and monsters was hostile towards him and Lilith. Though admittedly, he and his partner were hardly in any danger from untrained civilians.

On that topic, these inhabitants of Zipangu looked confused at the two strangers they had encountered. If Adam had been on his own, or with other humans, then he likely would have been seen as an invader. But a human hero and a monster together was something that gave them pause.

Eventually, one of the humans, a young man who couldn't be older than twenty, said, "You, I've never seen either of you before… are you from another village?"

"No, we have come from the land across the sea to the west," Adam replied.

These words caused the people of Zipangu to glance at each other in surprise.

"That's… impossible," the young man said. "In the west, there's no peace between humans and youkai…"

"And how do you know our language?" asked another.

"That's because of a spell I cast, which basically allows us to understand the meaning of your words," Lilith explained.

"And, to answer the first question: it's true in general that there is conflict between humans and mons—youkai in the west," Adam said, deciding to use the local term for monsters. "But there are exceptions to that trend. We are two such exceptions."

The Zipangu villagers still looked uncertain, so Lilith added, "We came here on the advice of the dwarf blacksmith, Kalk. He also came to Zipangu from the west, a long time ago. Have you heard of him?"

The young man, who seemed to be the leader of this impromptu group, shook his head. He conversed with his fellows for a few moments, then said, "I'm still not sure about this… but you should probably come with us to our village. Our elders might know about you or… the one you said came here earlier."

With that settled, Adam and Lilith followed the group of Zipangu villagers through the strange forest. They were still the target of the occasional suspicious look, but that was only natural. A good portion of these looks came from the black-feathered harpy, though said harpy never made any attempt to speak to them, and ducked out of sight whenever Adam looked in his direction.

-ooo-

A short while later, they emerged from the forest and arrived at a sprawling field. This field was unlike any that Adam had seen, being waterlogged like a swamp, but the evenness of the vegetation made it clear that this land was cultivated. There were no farmers working in the field at the moment—presumably, they had fled to safety after being warned of possible invaders nearby.

They walked through the field on a raised path of dirt that allowed them to avoid wetting their feet. Adam saw that the crop plants in this field were remarkably similar to the ones he was familiar with, having long stalks and slender leaves, they were simply growing partly submerged in water. He briefly wondered what the product of this plant would taste like. However, he didn't voice this question to any of the Zipangu villagers, due to the awkwardness of the current situation.

Eventually, the village came into sight. The buildings were constructed from wood and thatch, and didn't look like they could last against a strong storm: either they were reinforced with magic, or they were rebuilt on a regular basis. Another notable aspect of the buildings was the entrances, which were much larger than necessary to accommodate humans.

Then there were the inhabitants of the village. Roughly three-quarters were human, but the remainder… Adam could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen so many monsters together in one place, and he certainly had never seen so many monsters living in peace with humans. The monsters included more of the harpies and horned humanoids, but there were also large cats with two tails each, immense serpents with white scales, and—to Adam's shock—living umbrellas that hopped around on their handles.

Currently, these villagers were huddled inside or next to their homes, fearfully watching the arrival of Adam and Lilith. None of them, not even the monsters, looked like they were planning to attack them. Presumably, the villagers that had left to investigate were the most combative out of the village.

_It's strange, to see monsters that not only don't want to attack humans, but are reluctant to fight at all,_ Adam thought. _Still, I'm glad to have seen this. It's like stepping into the sun after a lifetime spent in the darkness._

Adam looked at Lilith, who was currently walking beside him. The succubus was just as surprised by this village as he was. More importantly, she had much more energy in her movements, the kind of energy that she hadn't had for the past week. The sight made Adam feel glad to the depths of his heart.

A larger building came into view. This building was still made out of wood, but it was painted in bright red and white, and had a tiled roof with eaves that sloped upwards.

Standing outside the building were three elderly humans. The humans were wrinkled and white-haired from age, and two were so hunched-over that they were no taller than children, but they still faced the strangers to their village without any apparent signs of fear.

One of the elders, a woman, was the first to speak. "You are not from our Kingdom of the Sun," she said, in a slow but confident voice. "What is your business here?"

"My name is Adam, and I am a hero from the western continent," Adam said.

"A hero?" said another elder. "The heroes of the Order are sworn to slay monsters. Yet you have come to this land accompanied by a monster, and have made no attempt to draw your weapon… why?"

"Unlike most humans—and for that matter, most people outside of this land—I have learned that monsters are not necessarily hostile to humans," Adam said. "My partner, Lilith, and I have come here to Zipangu to learn about it, to learn about its people."

"We've met some other monsters who were also willing to not attack humans," Lilith said. "But all of the other monsters and humans in the west are different, they're locked in this endless war. We came here because we heard that monsters and humans here get along, and we wanted to find out how you manage it."

The village elders looked at each other and held a discussion in muttered voices.

"And, one more thing I'd like to add," Adam said. "We learned of the existence of Zipangu from a dwarf blacksmith named Kalk, who once came to this land. Do you remember him?"

"Kalk… yes, I remember him," the female elder said. "Dwarves rarely come here, so his arrival caused some degree of commotion. He passed through this village threescore years ago… My mind is not what it once was, but I can still remember that moment. He was no taller than any of the children, but stronger than most of the adults. Before he left, he forged a sturdy axe for the village, which I believe is still being used to this day…"

The third of the elders, a man old enough to be Adam's grandfather, spoke. "It appears that you have come here with peaceful intentions. But to be certain, we must ask you to wait here for now. One of our number left on a visit to a neighbouring village, and is due to return before the end of today. She will be able to confirm if you are truly what you claim to be."

"Until then, we will show you our hospitality," the female elder said. "Please come inside."

Adam and Lilith followed the elders inside the building. They couldn't fully relax yet, but so far their prospects seemed good.

Inside the building were floors covered with straw mats, sliding doors and walls made from—of all things—paper. The elders led the pair to a room and prepared a strange beverage: they placed fragments of leaves in ceramic cups and added boiling water.

"Here," the female elder said, passing two cups to Adam and Lilith, then taking a sip from her own cup to demonstrate that the beverage wasn't poisoned. "You may not have had tea before, but please give it a taste."

Adam did as instructed. The tea was… well, to be frank, he had no idea how to describe it. He was hardly a connoisseur of drinks. However, it certainly wasn't bad, and he felt slightly more relaxed from just that one sip.

Over the next hour, Adam and Lilith explained their history to the village elders, and likewise learned various facts about Zipangu from the elders. Eventually, the one they were waiting for returned.

A monster resembling a fox stepped into the room. However, no regular fox was the size of a horse or had five tails.

"So these are the strangers who have come to our village?" the fox monster said.

"That's correct, Haru," one of the male elders said. "The armoured human is Adam, the winged youkai is Lilith. We've talked with them and they seem trustworthy, but we'd like you to confirm that. Adam, Lilith, this is Haru, the inari who lives in this village. She is the best suited to determining your true natures."

"Hmm… you are a succubus, are you not?" Haru said to Lilith.

"That's right," Lilith answered, her voice showing no hint of nervousness. On the other hand, Adam could see her hands shaking slightly underneath the table.

Haru looked at Adam with a measuring gaze. After a few seconds, she nodded in a satisfied manner.

"I am knowledgeable in several fields of magic, including mental magic. However, it seems that the only spell upon you is one that allows you to understand our tongue. Your companion has done nothing to bend you to her will. Just how did your relationship come about?"

Before either Adam or Lilith could respond, one of the human elders said, "We have kept these visitors for long enough here. My suggestion is that they be allowed to explore this village as they please, since we are now certain that they have no hostile intentions. We three can tell you the story of how they came here."

"I see, very well," Haru said. "Come with me, I will introduce you to the village. That should assuage their fears and make it easier for you to interact with them."

"Alright, thank you for the help," Adam said.

Adam and Lilith headed for the exit along with the large fox monster. Along the way, they grasped each other's hand in mutual reassurance.

_We've experienced many things over the past months, and failed more than once,_ Adam thought. _The centaurs aren't the only example—before that, we couldn't do anything to save Thutmose in the desert. And if it weren't for Poseidon's intervention, we would have perished at the bottom of the sea. But now that we're here in Zipangu, we may finally find answers._

-ooo-

Three days passed, during which Adam and Lilith grew accustomed to living in the small Zipangu village. They stayed in a guest room in the central building and spent every day, as well as much of the nights, exploring the village and interacting with its people.

One afternoon, Adam found himself holding a fake sword made from bamboo, the woody grass that grew in abundance around the village. Bamboo was widely used in Zipangu society, being similar in its properties to wood yet much faster-growing. He wasn't wearing any of his armour as it was unnecessary for this occasion.

He was facing five boys who were similarly armed. Four of the boys were human, while the fifth was a red oni: a humanoid monster with red skin and a pair of horns. The adult oni were significantly taller and bulkier than humans, but this young one was no different in build from the human boys. He was similar in personality as well, charging recklessly at Adam with no skill or tactics in mind.

Adam was experienced in combat against all sorts of opponents, but trying to fight these children without hurting them was genuinely challenging. They of course outnumbered him, and their actions were also completely unpredictable. A boy might charge at Adam, sword aimed at the latter's head, only to trip over a rock, causing his sword to swing towards Adam's shoulder instead. Or two boys would collide with each other, distracting Adam long enough for a third to land an attack.

_I've seen drunken brawlers in bars who fought with more skill than this, _Adam thought. _Still, I'm not just going to stand here and be beaten!_

Adam swung his bamboo sword using a tiny fraction of his usual strength, knocking one of the boys to the ground. He then stuck out his leg to trip another boy, who collided with a third. He sidestepped the fourth's attack, causing the boy to lose his balance.

There was only one boy left, the young red oni. He trembled, but didn't put down his sword.

"Do you wish to surrender?" Adam asked.

"N-Never!" the red oni boy shouted. "You won't win, y-y-you villain!"

With a determined roar, the oni ran at Adam with bamboo sword raised. Adam casually knocked the sword out of his hands, then brought the tip of his sword to just under the boy's chin. It would have been a tense scene straight out of a legend, if it weren't for the bamboo weapons, one of the combatants being a child, and the other combatant doing his best to stifle a laugh.

Adam lowered his sword and the boys gathered around him, having accepted their loss.

"Wow, that was amazing!" one of the human boys said, eyes practically shining with admiration. "We could barely hit you at all!"

"How can we be like you?"

"Teach us! Teach us!"

"Alright then, here's one important thing you'll need to learn," Adam said. He cleared his throat. "One important thing that you should always remember in life… is to ask your questions one at a time. You're more likely to get good answers that way."

The boys groaned. "Not _that_," one said. "We want to know how to be strong like you!"

Adam chuckled. "In that case, you'll need to train every single day for years on end, and eat a healthy diet just like your parents tell you to."

There were more groans. It seemed that no matter the country or the species, children would always dislike eating in a healthy manner.

Suddenly, Adam heard the sounds of numerous beating wings. He looked up to see Lilith flying in his direction, along with several young crow tengu—the species of black-feathered harpy that was native to Zipangu. The group of flying monsters descended and landed nearby.

"How was your flight, Lilith?" Adam asked.

"We made it to the coast and back," Lilith replied. "The children were able to gather a lot of seashells."

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not a child, I'm almost an adult now!" shouted one of the crow tengu.

"You're not an adult until you can fly faster than me," Lilith claimed, hands on her hips in an exaggerated display of superiority.

The crow tengu fumed, puffing up her feathers. It seemed that overestimating their own maturity was another thing common to all children.

But the sun was now getting low in the sky, and the children's mothers came to fetch them for dinner. The assorted human and monster children left, though more than a few of them were reluctant to do so.

Adam and Lilith had dinner as well. They went to a communal dining area at the edge of the village: this consisted of several benches and long tables underneath a bamboo canopy. There were many farmers, lumberjacks and other labourers here: after a day of hard work, they preferred to have dinner together and chat amongst themselves.

The pair went to a table with several pots and plates of food. Behind this table stood a blue oni—blue oni were the blue-skinned counterparts to the red oni, and generally calmer in temperament—who was taller than any of the human men despite being female.

"Oh, it's you two!" the blue oni—Himawari, if Adam remembered her name correctly—said cheerfully. "Thanks for helping with the kids today! They must have been a handful!"

"They weren't a problem at all," Adam replied. "Well… not a major problem, at least."

"Though it would be nice if they didn't keep pulling on my tail," Lilith added in an unnecessarily loud whisper.

Himawari laughed. "Well, here's a good meal for your hard work!"

The blue oni gave them two bowls of rice and a plate with various vegetables. Adam and Lilith found places to sit and began to eat.

The cuisine of Zipangu was quite different to that of the mainland. The primary grain was rice, the seeds of the semi-aquatic plants growing in the neighbouring fields. Many kinds of vegetables were present, though Adam had yet to learn most of their names. There was little meat and no dairy foods such as cheese. On the other hand, seafood was quite common despite the distance from this village to the coast: the coastal villages gathered so much of it, partly due to the assistance of sea monsters, that they could export it inland at cheap prices.

And the utensils used to eat this food were also different. Instead of spoons or forks, the Zipangu people used wooden sticks that tapered to blunt points. Though simple in design, these sticks were quite versatile in handling food. After three days of practice, Adam could actually pick up food the majority of the time without dropping it.

_All in all, it feels refreshing to try out this new culture,_ Adam said. _If the world wasn't in such a sorry state, then more people—human and monster alike—might be able to travel like this._

At one point, one of the villagers slammed down a mug of sake—a local alcoholic beverage—in front of Adam. This particular villager was Itsuki, one of the farmers.

"Hey, tell us another story about your homeland!"

Adam accepted the mug and took a sip. "Well, in that case… Three years ago, my friends and I travelled to the territory of one Lord Yorick…"

For the next few minutes, Adam related the story of the first time he and his friends had been given a mission by a noble. They had spent hours just tidying themselves up and practicing their etiquette so they wouldn't look like idiots. But when they had actually gone to the noble's castle to receive the mission, said noble's daughter had quickly taken a liking to Adam. The next day, they had all been forced to flee the castle. They were never able to take any missions in that territory ever again.

"Gahahaha!" Itsuki laughed, almost knocking his own sake off the table. "Ah, that reminds me of what happened with my uncle…"

Adam heard about the various adventures—and misadventures—of the villager's family. Several nearby villagers added their own comments at frequent intervals, so the conversation dragged on for quite a while. It was similar to stories he'd heard before, but one thing he noticed was how monsters were often involved, even in events from decades in the past.

When Itsuki was finally done talking, Adam asked, "From what I've heard, it seems like humans and youkai in Zipangu have been able to peacefully coexist for a long time. Just how long has this been the case?"

"For as long as anyone can remember," Itsuki said. He scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "Sorry, I guess that's not really helpful. But that's all I really know. Youkai have been living alongside us for as long as I can remember, and it was like that in my father's time, and in my grandfather's time, and so on."

"But how did it all begin?" Lilith asked.

"There's many legends about that, too many to count," Itsuki replied. "One says that an evil kami cast a curse over the world to make youkai attack humans, and only Zipangu was spared from the curse because of it being far from everywhere else."

Lilith's translation spell wasn't perfect, and some of its concepts couldn't be fully translated. In this case, "kami" was a term that was apparently used for gods but also for powerful monsters.

"Then there's another legend, this one says that it's because we have the protection of our own kami," said another villager. "I think that one's the right one. I've seen some of the kami myself when I travelled, and they have incredible power… I felt like I was a child standing before giants."

"No, that can't be it," insisted a third villager. "Our kami may be powerful, but there are many in the west who are also powerful. No, it must be because of a conspiracy between the leaders of the two sides, to make the war go on so only they profit."

It seemed that implausible theories were another thing that was also found in Zipangu society. The leadership of both humans and monsters had changed frequently over the past centuries, with the former not having _any_ unified leadership whenever there was no Demon Lord. A conspiracy of that kind would never last more than a single generation.

Still, Adam and Lilith continued listening to the various accounts of the origin of human-monster coexistence in Zipangu. It was crucial information for their own plans.

-ooo-

After finishing dinner, Adam and Lilith returned to their room. As enjoyable as it was to spend time with the villagers, there were some things the two of them could only discuss in private.

Adam sat on his bed and glanced out the window. There were still quite a few people moving around at this late hour, mostly nocturnal monsters.

"How are you feeling now, Lilith?" Adam asked.

"A lot better than before—but I should be asking you that as well," Lilith replied.

The two of them looked at each other for several seconds. While there was no light save for the moonlight entering through the window, both of them had sufficient night vision to perceive each other's expressions. Adam was the first to turn away.

"In that case, I'm also feeling much better than before," Adam said. "Now, I have a more concrete idea of what we should do next: explore Zipangu further, then return to the mainland and see what we can do to replicate the successes in this country. However—"

"—No matter what we do here, it doesn't change the past," Lilith finished.

Adam nodded grimly. It was a lesson that he'd heard a long time ago from one of his late friends, Marcus. One night, Marcus had confided in him a deadly mistake from the past: he used to have a rival who was always better than him at archery, and eventually decided to sabotage their bowstring prior to a training session, only for this to lead to the rival's death during a sudden monster attack. Fraught with guilt, Marcus had left his village, and his path eventually led him to meet with Adam.

_But even then, he never forgave himself for that,_ Adam thought. _He hid his pain behind a mask of jokes, but it always ate away at him._

"We can't undo what we did to the centaurs," Adam said. "We also can't undo the countless deaths that have already happened in this endless war. But that doesn't mean we should give up. We _can_ make a difference if we persevere—we already have with the sea monsters, and Zipangu is proof that this can be replicated on a larger scale."

Lilith looked out the window at the village. "Mm… you're right. Though on that topic, we haven't really learned _how_ things are managed here."

Adam frowned. Indeed, they still didn't know how they could apply the lessons of Zipangu to other societies. The monsters of Zipangu were raised alongside humans, and this was apparently enough for them to overcome their instincts: a case of nurture triumphing over nature. But they weren't certain on how this situation had come about in the first place. Without that information, anything they did was unlikely to succeed. There was simply too much accumulated hostility between the two sides.

"We'll need to ask the elders about it," Lilith continued, "Hopefully, they can give us some clear—"

Lilith whipped her head around to face the door to the room. There was the sound of approaching footsteps, and the door was pushed open by a large paw. Haru, the inari of the village, stepped inside. While she had previously been composed, right now her ears were twitching and her tails were flicking about in nervousness.

"My apologies for the intrusion, but this is an urgent matter," Haru said.

"It's fine, what is it?" Adam asked.

"I've just received a telepathic message from a neighbouring village," Haru explained. "The very same one that I visited recently. The message wasn't entirely coherent, but… it seems they are being attacked by a rogue youkai. It might be insolent of me to ask, but will you—"

"Yes, we can certainly help you," Adam said. "We can leave at once."

Haru lowered her head, causing the tip of her snout to almost touch the ground. "I cannot thank you enough for this. Now, let us depart."

Adam and Lilith rapidly equipped themselves, then followed the inari out of the building. The human elders were also awake, and accompanied them to the entrance to send them off.

The three of them left the village and headed north: Haru running on foot, Lilith flying with Adam in her arms. While the latter two were able to ignore the terrain, the inari was still able to keep up with them, deftly weaving between trees and leaping over streams and canyons. It took them just five or six minutes to reach the other village.

As they approached their destination, Adam could see the orange-tinted light of fires, could faintly hear the screams of the dying. He felt Lilith's arms tighten around him.

Then their target came into view, a massive silhouette with many legs, currently in pursuit of a screaming human. Lilith cast a fire spell at the monster to stop it in its tracks, then landed right in front of it and set Adam down.

Adam glanced over his shoulder to confirm that the human villager was alright, then turned around to face his opponent.

The rogue monster was somewhat similar to an arachne, possessing three pairs of legs that each terminated in a fearsome bone claw. It was covered with black fur that was matted and stained with dirt. But instead of a humanoid upper body, it had an immense bull's head with wickedly curved horns and a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Flecks of gore dotted the monster's teeth, indicating that it had already fed at least once. Finally, Adam noticed that Lilith's fire had barely even singed its fur.

"GRAAAAARGHHHHH!"

Letting out an earthshaking roar, the strange spider monster charged at them. Lilith returned to the air and began charging up another spell, while Adam dodged to the side and slashed at the spider monster's leg as it passed. His sword inflicted only a small nick on the tough appendage, and was almost knocked out of his hands by the recoil.

A jet of red flame struck the spider monster from the side, forcing it to the ground. Haru came into sight, the tips of her tails glowing with the same red flame. However, the spider monster immediately stood up again and bellowed its defiance.

"Just what kind of mons—of youkai is this?" Adam asked.

"An ushi-oni," Haru replied grimly. "One of the most dangerous youkai in all of Zipangu."


	22. Chapter 22: Close Call

Though this particular monster was unfamiliar to him, Adam had years of training and experience on his side. He sidestepped a claw swipe and then retaliated with a sword slash, this time putting less strength into his attack. He wouldn't be able to defeat this opponent quickly, so he would need to use numerous attacks to bring them down.

And fortunately, Adam wasn't alone. A constant barrage of spells from Lilith and Haru prevented the ushi-oni from focusing on any one target. The ferocious spider monster could only roar in frustration at being faced with prey capable of fighting back.

But that didn't mean Adam and the others could relax. The ushi-oni was strong, durable and also surprisingly fast. It—the appearance was so unusual that Adam couldn't even guess at its sex—was able to attack and block in multiple directions simultaneously thanks to its many legs. Moreover, by striking buildings with enough force to hurl rubble into the air, it could even attack the flying Lilith. As a result, all three of them had to take evasive action constantly. And that still wasn't the full extent of the challenges they faced.

While avoiding a lunge from the ushi-oni, Haru called out to the others, "Do not let its blood touch you! It holds a deadly curse!"

"Then this—" Adam ducked to avoid a claw swipe, "—isn't an optimal fight for me!"

"Ushi-oni are also quite resistant to magic—" Haru launched a cluster of fireballs, which barely caused her target to flinch, "—and can rapidly recover from injury!"

"But it's not invincible, at least!" Lilith said, shooting a barrage of lightning bolts.

A minute passed, with Adam and the others inflicting dozens upon dozens of wounds, but every single one of these wounds was minor. And the ushi-oni wasn't hindered at all—rather, it seemed to be growing faster the more it was attacked.

Adam tried to close in for another attack, only for the ushi-oni to lash out with a massive claw, and this time he wasn't able to dodge in time. The claw struck Adam in the chest, sending him flying backwards and through the wall of a house.

_Gah...! This feeling—several of my ribs are broken!_

The ushi-oni roared triumphantly, a sound that might have made an ordinary person die of fright, then moved in for the kill. A cone of ice struck it from the side, freezing half of its legs to the ground. The ushi-oni freed itself from the ice in an instant, only to be blasted from the other side by a powerful gust of wind. Growling, it turned its attention to the other two.

"Adam!" Lilith called out. "Are you okay!?"

"I can still fight!" Adam responded.

Adam placed a hand on his chest and focused his spirit energy in a healing spell. After a few seconds, he was able to stand up again. The downside to this quick healing was that his ribs weren't fully healed yet, so they'd break even more easily if he received another attack, and there was still a stabbing pain in his chest.

_But if it's just physical pain—I can handle it!_

Now back in the battle, Adam decided to keep his distance from the ushi-oni. Using the wreckage of the house as a hiding spot, he observed the movements of the aggressive monster. The stances it took when attacking, its reactions when it received an attack, Adam took all of it in. At the same time, he kept an eye on his two allies in this battle: he could not let himself be the sole survivor again.

Eventually, an opportunity arrived. With the ushi-oni preoccupied with Lilith and Haru, Adam charged forward and slashed at the underside of the abdomen, where the exoskeleton was relatively thin. His sword pierced deeply into flesh, and scarlet blood gushed from the wound. Adam twisted his body to avoid the blood, but a few drops still landed on his right arm.

The moment the blood touched him, and despite the armour he wore, Adam felt a fierce heat spread throughout his arm. It was as though his own blood was being boiled in his veins!

And of course, Adam couldn't simply focus on the curse he'd just been afflicted with. The ushi-oni lashed out with one of its rear claws, forcing Adam to jump back to avoid being decapitated. Fortunately, Lilith froze the ushi-oni to the ground again, giving Adam the opportunity to put some distance between himself and the spider monster.

Adam snatched up a piece of clothing from the ground—one of many that had been released from a shattered wardrobe—and used it to wipe away the blood. He then flexed his right arm, causing arrows of pain to shoot all the way down the arm. Despite the pain, he could move it more or less normally… but there was no telling how long that would last.

_Dispelling curses was never my strong point… but if I don't focus on the fight before me, I'll be brought down in a much quicker and more brutal fashion._

After applying a quick healing spell to his right arm, Adam charged back into the fray. He circled around the ushi-oni, looking for another opportunity to attack. No opportunity presented itself, as the ushi-oni was now wary of Adam and refused to let him remain behind it.

But once again, Adam was not alone in this battle. Haru launched a massive fireball at the ushi-oni's rear, striking the gash in its abdomen and causing the spider monster to scream in pain. Then Lilith followed up with her own fire magic, bathing the head of the ushi-oni with a torrent of crimson flame.

Finally, the ushi-oni fell to its knees. But it was not dead yet: despite its multiple grave wounds, its eyes were still filled with rage and its clawed legs continued struggling in a futile attempt to continue the battle.

"It is finished," Haru said. "Accept your defeat."

Haru ignited tufts of ethereal red flame on the ends of her five tails. She allowed the quintet of flames to grow for several seconds, then threw them at the fallen ushi-oni, where they merged into a sphere of brilliant red light. Despite his relative proximity to the sphere, Adam felt no heat from it: presumably, Haru was controlling her magic to prevent it from causing any collateral damage. Eventually, the sphere faded away into embers, leaving behind a small pile of ash on the ground.

However, that was not the end of the ushi-oni's legacy. More than a dozen of the buildings had been reduced to rubble, and there were corpses—some of them half-eaten—lying around everywhere. Furthermore, without the distraction of an enemy, Adam could no longer hold back the pain from the curse. He fell down onto his hands and feet.

"Adam!?"

Lilith was at Adam's side in an instant.

"You were struck by its curse?" Haru said, rushing over a moment later. Her ears drooped. "This is… if only I had not brought you here—"

"We both came here of our own will," Adam said. With Lilith's help, he managed to move into a sitting position. "We were both ready for the worst to happen. No battle is without risk."

"Perhaps, but in any case, it is my obligation to do all in my power to ensure your recovery," Haru said.

"Do you know how to remove this curse?" Lilith asked.

"I do not, but I can at least slow its progress… please hold still for a moment, Adam…"

Haru held two of her tails just above Adam's arm, and a red light bathed the cursed area. After a few moments, Adam felt the excruciating heat subside… it did not, however, disappear entirely.

"I have just walled off the cursed energy with my own," Haru explained. "With my level of skill, this will restrain the curse for an hour, two at most, but no more. We must hurry if we are to get help."

Adam caught sight of movement in the distance. "If I have at least an hour left, then could we could spare a few minutes to talk to the villagers?"

Haru glanced over her shoulder at the approaching villagers. "Yes… but leave this to me. You two have already done enough—more than enough."

The inari padded towards the inhabitants of this village and began explaining that the ushi-oni was dead thanks to the combined efforts of her and two visitors from across the sea. It was a somewhat unusual experience for Adam: as a hero, he was used to being the one who spoke to the grateful villagers after slaying monsters. Even when he'd been injured in a battle, he was usually able to heal himself to an adequate condition before returning to a village.

_I can't afford to be careless… even with these new weapons, and even though most monsters are far less powerful than the kraken I faced, I could still be brought low at any time. As could Lilith…_

On that note, Lilith was currently fussing over Adam's condition. And Adam could hardly blame her: if their circumstances had been reversed, then he would be just as worried about her.

"Come on, why didn't you mention this earlier?" Lilith asked. "Did you think it would be a distraction for us?"

"Well…"

"You need to tell me things like this," Lilith said, putting both of her hands on Adam's shoulders. "What if you misjudged how dangerous the curse was? You could have died!"

Adam hung his head. "That's true… I suppose it's an example of how even the experienced can make mistakes. But I promise you that I won't do this again."

"You'd better not."

Lilith hugged Adam tightly, burying her face in his shoulder. The hero returned the hug.

Not long after, they moved apart after sensing the approach of Haru and the villagers.

"Thank you for your help in defending our village, visitors from the west," said an old man who appeared to be the leader of the village… or at least, the most senior person left alive. "I am the one who sent a request to Haru for aid, but I was not expecting her to bring allies like you."

"We…" Adam hesitated, since the people of Zipangu had rather different attitudes towards monsters than the humans he was used to dealing with, "have some experience with situations of this sort. We will not abandon those in need of help, nor will we allow anyone to use their strength as an excuse to prey on others."

The old man nodded. "I understand that you received the ushi-oni's curse and must leave at once to be healed… this is hardly an adequate reward for your efforts, but I will tell you that there is no need to worry about us. We can, and will, manage to rebuild."

"That's good," Lilith said. "Sorry that we had to meet in a situation like this…"

"If you ever pass through this region again, please visit our village of Tsurui," the old man said. "You will always be welcome here. Now, I shall not delay you for any longer."

It was time for the trio to set off. Lilith picked up Adam and together they followed Haru out of the village.

They headed east, deeper into Zipangu. The terrain here was more rugged than that nearer the coast, with many steep cliffs and deep canyons. But neither of the two monsters slowed down: Lilith could tap into the stored energy in her diamond to replenish herself, but even Haru maintained a fast pace across the rugged terrain.

For what felt like hours, Adam could only remain still and reflect on his situation.

_I must improve myself. At the very least, if I knew more about dispelling curses, then the current situation would not be so dire._

_But how to do that is another question entirely. To learn new skills, I would need to travel to one of the major cities and accept the tutelage of senior heroes. That would mean separating from Lilith for some time... it would be too risky to bring her into a stronghold of the Order, filled with heroes and priests._

_Hmph… it's another reminder of how much I've changed. To hesitate at associating with the Order for the sake of a monster…_

_But I know more about monsters now. And… she's not just any monster to me._

Adam kept his face away from Lilith, not wanting his partner to see his expression.

-ooo-

They arrived at their destination, a large town, and rushed down the main road. There were people around even at this early hour, a mix of nocturnal monsters and the diurnal preparing for the day's work, and they were startled at the strangers hurrying through their town.

However, there was no time to explain the situation: the restraint on the curse was gradually wearing off, and Adam now felt an increasing degree of pain with every passing minute. He didn't let out any sound, but he was unable to stop his body from trembling. Lilith noticed, and she seemed to beat her wings with even greater urgency.

Finally, they arrived at a shrine in the centre of the town. This shrine was even grander than the one in Haru's village, being three stories in height and having roofs of brilliant red and walls of stunning gold.

Waiting at the entrance of the shrine was another inari, this one possessing nine tails. Judging from the body shape, this one was male. And he gave off an aura of power greater than that of virtually every other monster Adam had encountered.

"I received your message," the male inari said as they approached. "This is the one in need of healing?"

Haru dug her claws into the ground to come to a stop. Her breathing was laboured, but she was still able to reply, "Yes. Without his help… I would not have been able to stop a rogue usho-oni who was attacking Tsurui."

The male inari nodded and guided the three of them inside the shrine. He led them to a small room and gestured for Adam to be laid down on a straw mat.

"My name is Daiki," the male inari said, examining Adam's arm. "What are your names?"

Adam and Lilith introduced themselves, during which Daiki continued his examination.

"And where do you now feel the effects of the curse?" Daiki asked. "Are they localised to your arm, or do they extend beyond that?"

"The pain is primarily in my right arm… but there is also some pain throughout the rest of my body," Adam admitted.

"Can you get rid of this curse?" Lilith asked.

"I can, you may rest assured of that," Daiki said. "However, this human will need to be unconscious during the process. Drawing out the curse will be an… unpleasant process, otherwise."

"That's alright," Adam said. "You may start whenever you're ready."

"I already completed most of my preparations when Haru contacted me via telepathy," Daiki said. "Now that I have analysed the curse in person, I can start immediately."

"Thank you for this," Haru said, lowering her head until her snout almost touched the floor. "These two are the reason I was able to bring down that ushi-oni, and if one of them were to die on my behalf—"

"It is no problem at all," Daiki said, waving his tails in a presumably dismissive manner. "Rather, I'd prefer that you rely on me more often. I've barely seen you since you grew your fourth tail and moved out on your own."

Then Daiki placed one of his tails on Adam's forehead, sending the hero into a peaceful darkness.

-ooo-

The first sense that Adam regained was his sense of touch. He could feel a gentle warmth on his face, presumably sunlight streaming in through an open window.

Then he recovered enough to clearly hear his surroundings. There were the sounds of birds calling and a gentle breeze blowing amongst buildings.

Finally, he opened his eyes and saw Lilith out of the corner of his vision. In the next moment, the succubus jumped on him, hugging his chest.

"You're awake!"

"How long… have I been asleep?" Adam asked.

"It's pretty late in the afternoon now," Lilith replied. "If you're wondering where Haru is, she had to go back to her village, though she was sorry she couldn't stay until you woke up. Anyway, are you feeling alright now?"

"Yes, there's no longer any pain," Adam replied. "Though… I am feeling somewhat hungry after missing both breakfast and lunch."

"Then you can—"

Suddenly, the door to the room opened, and a large nine-tailed inari entered.

"Oh! Sorry if I was interrupting anything," Daiki said, in a much more frivolous tone than Adam remembered.

Lilith quickly pulled away from Adam and shot a dirty look at Daiki. "Didn't you say you were going on a walk around town?"

"I did, and I've finished doing that," Daiki said. "While I was confident in getting rid of all traces of the curse, and also healed the minor damage to the ribs, I thought it would be best to check up on my patient. Now, how are you feeling, Adam?"

Adam rose into a sitting position and, experiencing no discomfort from doing so, followed by standing up. "It seems I've fully recovered. Thank you for healing me of this curse…"

"As I told Haru earlier, it's no problem," Daiki said. "Now, my suggestion is that you do what I just did and explore this town. Fresh air, good food and talking with new people should all be helpful for you."

"I'll consider that," Adam said. "Though, if you don't mind me asking…"

"You're wondering why I'm acting so differently from last night?" Daiki said. "This is actually how I normally act. I can be serious when the situation needs me to be serious, but it's tiring to do that all of the time."

"I… see," Adam said. "My apologies, it was just a surprise to me."

"More importantly, please go out and enjoy yourselves," Daiki said. "And if you want to mate, please do it somewhere other than my shrine—"

"That's not what we were doing!" Lilith protested.

Daiki simply left the room without another word, leaving the door open.

Adam and Lilith looked at each other, then blushed and looked away.

"A-Anyway, we may as well take his advice," Adam said. He quickly realised what he'd said and added, "Not the second part! Just the advice about exploring this town."

"Y-Yeah, that would be a good idea," Lilith said. "I haven't left this building since we came in. I was… too worried about you…"

The two of them made their way to the main door of the shrine and stepped out into the sunlight. A bustling town of humans and monsters came into view, providing an easy distraction from the difficult problem that neither Adam nor Lilith had yet to solve.


End file.
